1975–80; hum(an) int(elligence)
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Once you get into HUMINT, SI, FISA, and OCORN, you get into really, really classified.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2022
In some cases, Psy-Group operatives conducted on-the-ground covert human-intelligence, or HUMINT, operations against their targets.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 28, 2019
What the CIA works on is human intelligence, called HUMINT.
From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2017
There’s “human intelligence,” or HUMINT, from sources and agents on the ground; there’s imagery and satellite intelligence, or GEOINT, by the bushelful.
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2015
Cryptology is code breaking; sigint is signals intelligence, like intercepting and interpreting phone calls and other communications; humint is human intelligence, the art of persuading people, against their instincts, to provide information.
From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2019
So diplomats and cabinet ministers here also want to upgrade their "humint".
From The Guardian ● Mar. 16, 2011
It has been generally acknowledged that the United States has never had any significant human sources--or, in intelligese, humint assets--inside al-Qaeda.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the other side are the proponents of what the spy business calls "humint" -- human intelligence, better known as infiltrators, informants and spies.
From Time Magazine Archive
Recently the CIA has matched its all-time high in funds and assignments to its humint programs, stepping up training of case officers for agent operation.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
