Federal Bureau of Investigation

British

noun

See FBI

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Federal Bureau of Investigation Cultural

An agency of the United States federal government, long headed by J. Edgar Hoover, which investigates violations of federal (rather than state or local) laws, including kidnaping, smuggling narcotics, and espionage.

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Established in 1908 under the Department of Justice, the FBI earned its reputation in the 1920s and 1930s by apprehending notorious bank robbers and gangsters.

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.

He noted that the journalists reached out to Trump, Justice Department officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation before publication.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

The incident is being investigated by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Cybercrime Unit, after the force received a referral from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US.

From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026

Others were concerned too, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Defense.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

Those that don’t, he said, could expect scrutiny from federal health agencies, the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026

Agents were now empowered to make arrests and carry firearms, and the department was soon renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023