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Glite Dictionary
🕵️ To enter secretly 💧 To pass through
to infiltrate

to infiltrate

127 7.4
To join a group in secret to get information or cause harm
  • verb
  • /ˈɪnfɪlˌtreɪt/
translation icon : infiltrarse en
  • The agents managed to infiltrate the criminal organization without raising any suspicions.
  • infiltrate the organization
  • infiltrate the group
  • infiltrate the government

Around the same time, the gang of children infiltrate my yard again.

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Examples

  • I was able to infiltrate the work crews in this facility.

    Terminator Genisys (2015)

  • While it's dark, the two of you will infiltrate past their lines.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • I'll have a few good men infiltrate the French lines and get your son out of the village.

    China Gate (1957)

  • Susan and I will infiltrate and take out the targets.

    Poolman (2024)

  • And yet an assassin managed to infiltrate this group.

    Scanners (1981)

  • To find June, Kidon must infiltrate the Elite.

    cari can read

  • Like right now, we could be pretty certain that Russia and China have quietly infiltrated parts of our infrastructure systems.

  • I infiltrated his inner circle.

    Fortress (2021)

  • The camp was thoroughly infiltrated before an alarm could be sounded.

    Spartacus (1960)

  • Gill said he had decided to infiltrate the white supremacist scene and write a book about it.

    Fiction book (1995)

Synonyms

to sneak in
vsto infiltrate
  • Informal
75 3.8

To go into a place quietly so no one notices

is about secretly joining groups to gather information or cause harm
to penetrate
vsto infiltrate
30 7.5

Enter a group secretly to get information

also covers joining secretly to cause harm rather than only spying
to weasel into
vsto infiltrate
  • Informal
1 8.5

To get into a place or group by being sly

uses secret joining often for organized spying or harm rather than personal slyness

Antonyms

to exfiltrate
  • Specialized
1 9.9

To secretly move people or things out of an area controlled by enemies

How Embedded

to embed
88 4.8
to infiltrate
127 7.4
to sneak in
  • Informal
75 3.8

Surface Forms

infiltrate infinitive
infiltrated past
infiltrated past participle
infiltrating present participle
infiltrates third person singular

Morphology

infiltrate = filtrate (semi-transparent) = in + filtr + ate

The sense extends the literal idea of gradual penetration into the metaphor of secretly entering a group, which is understandable but not fully predictable by rule.

Etymology

Infiltrate comes from the parts in- 'into' and a word like filter 'to pass through', so you can think of a person quietly slipping into a group the way water slips through a net, joining without being noticed.