espionage

[es-pee-uh-nahzh, -nij, es-pee-uh-nahzh]

noun

1. the act or practice of spying.

2. the use of spies by a government to discover the military and political secrets of other nations.

3. the use of spies by a corporation or the like to acquire the plans, technical knowledge, etc., of a competitor.

   industrial espionage.

espionage

/ ˌɛspɪəˈnɑːʒ, ˈɛspɪəˌnɑːʒ, ˈɛspɪənɪdʒ /

noun

1. the systematic use of spies to obtain secret information, esp by governments to discover military or political secrets

2. the act or practice of spying

Other Word Forms

• nonespionage noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of espionage¹

First recorded in 1785–95; from French espionnage, Middle French espionage, from espionn(er) “to spy” (derivative of espion “a spy,” from Italian spione, from Germanic ) + -age -age; espy

Word History and Origins

Origin of espionage¹

C18: from French espionnage, from espionner to spy, from espion spy, from Old Italian spione, of Germanic origin; compare German spähen to _spy

Example Sentences

The justice department would only prosecute "instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors", she wrote.

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China has rejected claims of espionage as "pure fabrication".

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The series frames the agents’ espionage—and eventual execution—as martyrdom for the cause of “unification.”

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Saudi Arabia conducted military exercises with China as recently as October and is vulnerable to espionage.

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Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has detected and disrupted what it described as the first documented cyber espionage campaign conducted largely autonomously by AI, marking a significant escalation in machine learning-enabled attacks.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• intelligence