whistleblower

Sometimes whis·tle blow·er
Or whis·tle-blow·er

[wis-uhl-bloh-er, hwis-]

noun

1. a person who informs on another or makes public disclosure of corruption, wrongdoing, problems, or secret information, especially within an organization.

Other Word Forms

• whistleblowing noun
• whistle-blowing noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of whistleblower¹

First recorded in 1965–70; whistle ( def. ) + blower ( def. )

Example Sentences

The Telegraph also reported that a whistleblower told the newspaper that a further discussion the following day was also shut down.

Read more on BBC

One whistleblower told a newspaper last year that Ofsted was "bending over backwards" to make inspections less stressful - at pupils' expense.

Read more on BBC

She said whistleblowers had told her they approached the CQC about "terrible" homes, but when the regulator inspected it was "too late" in cases where residents had died.

Read more on BBC

Another piece of signed legislation, Senate Bill 53, aims to make AI developers more transparent about safety risks and offers more whistleblower protections.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The sanctions measure, which passed in 2019, was named the Caesar Act for a Syrian military whistleblower who smuggled forensic photos of people executed in Assad’s prisons during the regime’s campaign against political opponents.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• informant 
• informer