informant

[in-fawr-muhnt]

noun

1. a person who informs inform 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.

informant

/ ɪnˈfɔːmənt /

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of informant¹

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

Example Sentences

"You can't make friends in cyber-crime, because the next day, your friends will be arrested and they will become an informant," he says.

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By then, Sánchez had developed a network of informants who told him the cartel had strengthened its presence at the mine.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Horst, the informant, was soon driving around East Berlin in his reward—a new car.

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Australia's most famous gangster won a reduced jail sentence Thursday on one of his drug-related convictions, after it was revealed his lawyer was a police informant.

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According to Crow, Darby was the fifth informant that the government had sent after him at that point.

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