espionage

English

Etymology

Recorded since 1793, a borrowing from French espionnage, from Middle French espionner (“to spy”), from Old French espion (“spy”), itself probably from a Germanic source (akin to Old High German spehon (“spy”)), possibly via Italian spione (from spia). More at spy.

Pronunciation

'ĕs-pē-ŭ-näzh also Canadian -năzh; -nizh

Noun

espionage (countable and uncountable, plural espionages)

1. The act or process of learning secret information through clandestine means.

Synonyms

• spying

Derived terms

• counterespionage, counter-espionage
• industrial espionage

Coordinate terms

• reconnaissance
• undercover

Translations

act of learning secret information through clandestine means

• Arabic: تَجَسُّس‏‎ m (tajassus), جَاسُوسِيَّة‏‎ f (jāsūsiyya)
• Armenian: լրտեսություն (hy) (lrtesutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: шпионаж (bg) m (špionaž)
• Catalan: espionatge m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 間諜活動 (zh), 间谍活动 (zh) (jiàndié huódòng)

• Czech: špionáž f
• Danish: spionage c
• Dutch: spionage (nl)
• Esperanto: spionado
• Estonian: spionaaž
• Finnish: vakoilu (fi)
• French: espionnage (fr) m
• Georgian: შპიონაჟი (šṗionaži), აგენტურა (agenṭura)
• German: Spionage f
• Greek: κατασκοπία (el) f (kataskopía)
• Hebrew: ריגול‏‎ (rigol)
• Hindi: जासूसी (hi) (jāsūsī)

• Hungarian: kémkedés (hu)
• Italian: spionaggio (it) m
• Japanese: スパイ行為 (supai-kōi)
• Latin: speculatio f
• Norwegian: spionasje m
• Persian: جاسوسی‏‎ (fa) (jâsusi)
• Polish: szpiegostwo (pl) n, wywiad (pl) m
• Portuguese: espionagem (pt) f
• Russian: шпиона́ж (ru) m (špionáž)
• Serbo-Croatian: špijunáža (sh) f
• Spanish: espionaje (es) m
• Swedish: spioneri (sv) n, spionage (sv) n
• Tagalog: pagbatyaw
• Telugu: వేగు (te) (vēgu)
• Thai: จารกรรม (jaa-rá-gam)
• Turkish: casusluk (tr)
• Urdu: جاسوسی‏‎ (jāsūsī)
• Yiddish: שפּיאָנאַזש‏‎ m (shpyonazh)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Japanese:

  hiragana: ちょうほうかつどう

  kanji: 諜報活動

  romaji: chōhō katsudō

• Korean:

  hangul: 간첩, 간첩행위

  romaja: gancheob, gancheophaengwi

• Latin: ^{(please verify)} speculatio
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} casusluk

Anagrams

• sea pigeon