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

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

The newspaper said a whistleblower sent a copy of the 19-page dossier to every member of the BBC board last month.

Read more on BBC

The peer says he has been speaking to a whistleblower, who claims that the government has missed the 2025 deadline set out in its national cyber security strategy for hardening "critical" systems against cyber attacks.

Read more on BBC

In August, whistleblowers accused the charity's leadership of misusing public funds, overseeing a "toxic internal culture", and failing to deliver on its mission.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• informant 
• informer