secret agent
27
3.4
- noun
- /ˈsiːkrɪt ˈeɪdʒənt/
:
espía
- As a secret agent, her mission was to gather intelligence without being detected.
- the best secret agent
He's clearly a secret agent for Chairman Meow in order.
- He's clearly a secret agent for Chairman Meow in order.
- I just added to you because I needed somehow to not be a secret agent.
- He thought maybe our secret agents, they want to assassinate me so I'm not a fanatic, so I cannot attack US.
Examples
-
But unbeknownst to me, I was followed home by a secret agent of the police.
-
James Bond, of course, is more than just a good guy: he is a secret agent.
Academic text (1990) -
I worked as a secret agent in England.
-
Being a secret agent is really hard.
-
What I do is done by every secret agent.
-
From what Zandor said, I think she's a secret agent.
-
The wide grin came first, but she quickly shifted into the stern professional expression of a top secret agent.
Fiction book (2001) -
Arguably, many of our expectations for how secret agents behave are anchored in our long experience with James Bond.
Academic text (1990) -
The greatest secret agent England's ever had, snuffed out in an instant.
-
I'm a secret agent!
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
82
8.2
A person who secretly works inside an organization to pass information to an enemy
33
3.7
A person who works for the government to collect and report secret information about threats to the country
18
4.1
A person who works secretly for the police to gather information while hiding who they are
13
3.0
A person who secretly works for a government to get information about the country's safety
12
8.2
A person who secretly enters a place to get secret information or cause harm
1
5.8
A person who secretly gets information for another country or company
A person who works secretly inside another group to get information
How Covert
623
2.9
18
4.1
27
3.4
201
7.3
165
5.6
- Specialized
33
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person employed to gather secret information' is directly and compositionally derived from 'secret' (kept hidden) modifying 'agent' (a person who acts on behalf of others), so a learner who knows both words can infer the MWE. This adjective+noun pattern is common across languages (e.g. Spanish 'agente secreto', French 'agent secret') and follows regular English grammar, making it immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
The noun secret agent combines secret and agent: imagine a person who works for someone else but stays hidden, in plain clothes passing secret reports and avoiding notice. So a secret agent is a person who 'gathers secret information' for a government or group.