espionage
Americannoun
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the act or practice of spying.
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the use of spies by a government to discover the military and political secrets of other nations.
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the use of spies by a corporation or the like to acquire the plans, technical knowledge, etc., of a competitor.
industrial espionage.
noun
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the systematic use of spies to obtain secret information, esp by governments to discover military or political secrets
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the act or practice of spying
Other Word Forms
- nonespionage noun
Etymology
Origin of espionage
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
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Intelligence experts believe south-western France is being increasingly targeted by Chinese and other espionage because of the region's proximity to defence, aerospace and telecommunication sites.
From BBC
He had faced up to 15 years on the economic espionage charge.
The bets, placed the night before the announcement, led the Norwegian Nobel Institute to investigate whether it had been the target of espionage.
A federal jury on Thursday convicted Linwei Ding, 38, of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets after an 11-day trial in the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times
“Everyone at the Park has. And everyone working in conjunction with the Park. It ensures protection against espionage and the unauthorized disclosure of information.”
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
