informant

American  

[in-fawr-muhnt] / ɪnˈfɔr mənt /

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.

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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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Etymology

Origin of informant

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

Example Sentences

According to the informant, Perez said he was driving with three others in his green Honda Accord when they spotted a pickup truck.

From Los Angeles Times

Sometimes it plays out smoothly, like when he talks Roman history with informant Frank Pentangeli in “Part II,” letting him know that his family would be taken care of should he die.

From Los Angeles Times

Department of Justice announced just before Christmas Eve it would stop monitoring the Orange County district attorney’s use of jailhouse informants.

From Los Angeles Times

Ryan won an award from the New York Press Club in 2018 for coverage of a jailhouse informant scandal in Detroit.

From The Wall Street Journal

Left by themselves to fight for answers, his mother Margaret and brother Eugene, both now dead, came to suspect collusion between British security forces and informants – meaning state agents - in the group responsible.

From BBC