communications intelligence
- noun
- /kəˌmjunɪˈkeɪʃənz ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns/
- Specialized
:
inteligencia de comunicaciones
- The government gathered communications intelligence from intercepted foreign transmissions.
Examples
-
The military relies on communications intelligence to gain insights into enemy strategies.
-
Communications intelligence helped the Allies at least as much.
Academic text (2006) -
And it was only one source of communications intelligence.
Academic text (1991) -
While the navy was expanding its communications intelligence organization, so was the army.
Academic text (1991) -
During the conflict, accurate communications intelligence was crucial for successful operations.
Synonyms
1
9.9
Secret information taken from other people's messages for military or security use
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositional: 'communications' specifies the source/type and 'intelligence' denotes secret or security information, so the overall meaning 'intelligence derived from communications' is directly inferable. Although the term is technical (referring specifically to intercepted foreign communications), the basic sense is transparent to a B1 learner who knows both constituents and the common noun‑noun modifier pattern.
Etymology
Communications intelligence comes from the picture of someone secretly listening to other people's communications, like tapping a phone or radio, and turning what they hear into useful intelligence for a government or army. So, it means 'collecting secret information from messages'.