informant

American  

[in-fawr-muhnt] / ɪnˈfɔr mənt /

noun

• informants
  plural

1. a person who informs or gives information; informer.

   Synonyms:

   tipster, adviser, source

2. a person who supplies social or cultural data in answer to the questions of an investigator.

3. Linguistics. a native speaker of a language who supplies utterances and forms for one analyzing or learning the language.

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informant British  

/ ɪnˈfɔːmənt /

noun

1. a person who gives information about a thing, a subject being studied, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• informants
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of informant

1655–65; < Latin infōrmant- (stem of infōrmāns ) present participle of infōrmāre. See inform ¹, -ant

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Explanation

An informant is someone who secretly provides information to police, the FBI, or another law enforcement agency. If you watch a lot of crime shows on TV, you're probably familiar with informants. In the world of law enforcement, informants are officially called CIs, for "confidential informant" or "criminal informant." The information informants provide can be useful in catching criminals, and the informant usually gets something in return — money or a reduced prison sentence, for example. Sometimes informant simply means "person who gives information."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

informant informants

Ahead of the vote, Orban denied resurfaced claims that he was an informant, sharing documents on Facebook showing a failed attempt to recruit him during his military service in the 1980s.

From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026

The informant gave Buchanan money and a phone that was tapped by the FBI, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

Karpenko’s informant pipeline has become a 24/7 operation, with longtime sources earning $4,000 a month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

You could argue that an informant has to participate to some degree in order to stay inside these groups.

From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026

Perhaps most damagingly, two private eyes, including one from the Burns agency, tried to expose the bureau’s main informant, Kelsie Morrison.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Secret police employed a total of 150,000 informants during these four decades, according to estimates from the state security archives, but records survive for only around a third of them.

From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026

Much like in East Germany and other parts of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, authorities employed an extensive network of informants to monitor public sentiment.

From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026

In 1962, a full 17 percent of the membership was reported to be federal informants.

From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026

Federal prosecutors accused Heidi Beirich of helping to facilitate secret payments to informants from extremist groups.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Back in Berlin, Bill Harvey's carefully nurtured network of informants continued to reap new intelligence rewards for the Americans.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

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