spy

CEFRB1

/spaɪ/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person who secretly collects information.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A defensive player assigned to cover an offensive backfield player man-to-man when they are expected to engage in a running play, but the offensive player does not run with the ball immediately.

Examples

  • He was denounced as a foreign spy.

  • White was denounced to the police as a spy.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To act as a spy.

  2. A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage).

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To spot; to catch sight of; to espy.

More examples

In context

  • You aren't a spy, are you?

  • During the Cold War, Russia and America would each spy on each other for recon.

  • I think I can spy that hot guy coming over here.

Synonyms

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

The government official was actually a blank who stole secret documents.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English spien, aphetic variant of earlier espien (“to espy”), from Old French espier (“to spy”), from Frankish *spehōn (“to spy”), from Proto-Germanic *spehōną (“to see, look”), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”). Akin to German spähen (“to spy”), Dutch spieden (“to spy”). The noun displaced native Old English sċēawere (literally “watcher”), which was also the word for "mirror." In this sense, the verb displaced Old English sċēawian, which was also the word for "to watch" and became the Modern English word show. Distant cognate vie PIE with Latin speculātor, Ancient Greek κατάσκοπος (katáskopos). Compare typologically Russian согляда́тай (sogljadátaj) (akin to гляде́ть...