secret agent
Americannoun
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an agent of a secret service.
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(loosely) a person employed to collect the military secrets of one country and relay them to another, especially a person living in a foreign country while so working for their own nation; spy.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of secret agent
First recorded in 1830–40
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.
Gary Oldman wants to play shabby secret agent 'for the long run'
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
Channeling the fictional 1980s secret agent MacGyver, he unwound the paper clip and stuck it in his TV’s coaxial port to get a signal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
Then in 1990 he got attention for his turn as the hard-nosed secret agent handling Anne Parillaud's female assassin Nikita, in Besson's hit film of the same name.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2025
But this year, he’s back in front of the camera in the new Prime Video series “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” starring alongside Maya Erskine as a secret agent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
The Soviets quickly caught on to the emotional distress and instability of their prized secret agent.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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.
