intelligence agent
13
3.0
- noun
- /ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns ˈeɪdʒənt/
- Specialized
:
agente de inteligencia
- The intelligence agent gathered crucial information about the enemy's plans.
- U.S. intelligence agents
- American intelligence agents
Now, how close did the counterintelligence agents work to the sink intelligence agents?
- Now, how close did the counterintelligence agents work to the sink intelligence agents?
Examples
-
What seems to capture the attention of both the public and pundits the most is the idea that U.S. intelligence agents should clandestinely penetrate foreign companies to steal their proprietary data for U.S. competitors.
Academic text (1994) -
Using intelligence agents to penetrate and spy on foreign commercial firms is neither necessary nor desirable.
Academic text (1994) -
You are an intelligence agent.
-
I have trained myself to be a spy, an intelligence agent.
Fiction book (1997) -
U.S. government sources strongly suspect that Russian intelligence agents were behind the data breach.
-
Many of these veterans served undercover during the war in the Philippines as intelligence agents.
Blog text (14) -
At the time, Jena was brimming with intelligence agents and undercover police officers.
-
According to the Washington Post, U.S. intelligence agents spied on Iraq under UNSCOM cover for three years.
Academic text (2000) -
We're saying that when Oswald went to Russia, he was not a real defector, that he was an intelligence agent on some kind of mission for our government and remained one till the day he died.
-
Part of her job was to translate and transcribe recordings of conversations between suspected Turkish intelligence agents and their American contacts.
Blog text (28)
Synonyms
623
2.9
A person who secretly collects information for a government or company
201
7.3
A person who works as a secret agent or detective
33
3.7
A person who works for the government to collect and report secret information about threats to the country
27
3.4
A person who gathers hidden information for a government about enemies
18
4.1
A person who works secretly for the police to gather information while hiding who they are
8
7.5
A person who manages secret sources who give information to a spy agency
1
5.8
A person who secretly gets information for another country or company
How Experienced
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person secretly employed to gather secret information' is directly derivable from combining 'intelligence' (secret information for security/military purposes) with 'agent' (a person who acts for or represents others). This simple noun+noun composition follows common compounding patterns and has clear parallels in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will almost certainly infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Intelligence agent comes from old military life: an agent is a person sent out, and intelligence once meant 'important information' about an enemy. Imagine a secret scout sneaking back with news—that's why the phrase means 'a person who secretly gathers information for the government'.