insider
Americannoun
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a person who is a member of a group, organization, society, etc.
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a person belonging to a limited circle of persons who understand the actual facts in a situation or share private knowledge.
Insiders knew that the president would veto the bill.
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a person who has some special advantage or influence.
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a person in possession of corporate information not generally available to the public, as a director, an accountant, or other officer or employee of a corporation.
noun
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a member of a specified group
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a person with access to exclusive information
Etymology
Origin of insider
Explanation
An insider is someone, usually one of a small group, who has access to secret or private information. A political insider knows what really goes on behind the scenes in a campaign or a senator's office. In a large company, insiders are privy to financial information or details about the way things work — information that isn't available to an ordinary employee or the general public. In the financial world, an insider knows things about the businesses whose stock is being traded, and "insider trading" is when they illicitly use this information for personal gain.
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.
One posted on LinkedIn about being sponsored for the event by Fatmir Mediu, an Albanian government official and longtime Fellowship insider.
From Salon • May 29, 2026
“He’s a Google insider milking Polymarket for quick money,” Jeong, a blockchain engineer, wrote on X. “It’s one of the wildest things I’ve seen on the platform.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
“I think it also underscores just how ripe for insider trading many of these markets are.”
From MarketWatch • May 28, 2026
Sharp-eyed observers like Jeong are proving to be an unexpected ally of law enforcement as it tackles the emerging challenge of insider trading on prediction markets.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
It taught me that it is easier to be an insider as an outsider than to be an outsider as an insider.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
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.
