UNDERCOVER AGENT

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Meaning:

(military) a secret agent hired by a state to obtain information about its enemies or by a business to obtain industrial secrets from competitors

Synonyms:

spy; undercover agent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("undercover agent" is a kind of...):

intelligence agent; intelligence officer; operative; secret agent (a person secretly employed in espionage for a government)

Domain category:

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "undercover agent"):

counterspy; mole (a spy who works against enemy espionage)

double agent (a spy who works for two mutually antagonistic countries)

espionage agent (someone employed to spy on another country or business competitor)

foreign agent (a spy for a foreign country)

infiltrator (someone who takes up a position surreptitiously for the purpose of espionage)

sleeper (a spy or saboteur or terrorist planted in an enemy country who lives there as a law-abiding citizen until activated by a prearranged signal)

Instance hyponyms:

Margarete Gertrud Zelle; Mata Hari (Dutch dancer who was executed by the French as a German spy in World War I (1876-1917))