Meaning & use
spy
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person who secretly collects information about another country, group or company, usually for an employer.
Grammar: Countable: a spy, two spies.
Patterns
- a spy for someone
- a spy in something
The spy passed the plans to a foreign agent.
He was arrested as a spy during the war.
A corporate spy copied the designs from the lab.
verbintransitive
To watch someone or something secretly to learn information.
Grammar: Used with on: spy on someone.
Patterns
- spy on someone
- spy for someone
She suspected her neighbor was spying on her.
The agent spied for a foreign government for years.
Children spied on the guests from the staircase.
verbtransitiveliterary
To notice or see something, often from a distance or after looking carefully.
Grammar: Takes an object: she spied a bird. Often literary.
Patterns
- spy something
- spy someone doing something
From the hill, he spied a small boat on the lake.
She spied her friend across the crowded room.
We spied a fox slipping behind the barn.
Word forms
| plural | spies |
|---|---|
| third person singular | spies |
| past tense | spied |
| past participle | spied |
| -ing form | spying |
Common combinations
- spy on someone
- He accused her of spying on him.
- a double spy
- The novel follows a double spy working for two countries.
- spy ring
- Police broke up a spy ring in the capital.
- industrial spy
- An industrial spy sold the company's secrets.
- spy novel
- He reads a spy novel on every flight.
Synonyms and how they differ
- agent
- Agent is a wider word for a person who works for an organization, and is not always secret.
- informer
- An informer passes on information, often about people near them, and usually to the police.
- scout
- A scout searches ahead for information, usually in a military or sport setting, and not in secret.
- observe
- Observe means watch carefully, usually openly, while spy suggests secrecy.
Word family
- spying noun
- the activity of secretly gathering information
- spyware noun
- software that secretly collects information from a computer
- spyglass noun
- a small telescope
- espionage noun
- the practice of spying
Commonly confused: spy or spy?
spy vs spy
Do not confuse with spay, which means to operate on an animal so that it cannot have young.
Practice
He claimed he was only trying to ____ a rare bird, not to spy on the neighbors.
Choose one answer.
Spy can mean to catch sight of something, as in spying a rare bird. Hide, fetch and ignore do not mean to notice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “spy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.