espionage

English

Etymology

Recorded since 1793, borrowed 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

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛs.pi.ə.ˌnɑːʒ/ enPR: ĕsʹ-pē-ə-näzh
  • (Canada) enPR: -năzh, -nizh

Noun

espionage (countable and uncountable, plural espionages)

1. The act or process of learning secret information through clandestine means.
   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 16:

     So intolerable did Heavy Benson's espionage become, that Raynham would have grown depopulated of its womankind had not Adrian interfered, who pointed out to the Baronet what a fearful arm his butler was wielding.

   • 2003 June 20, Joseph Purdy, “Totally Switched”, in Totally Spies!, season 2, episode 19, Teletoon, Marathon Media, spoken by Alexandra “Alex” (Andrea Taylor as Clover and Katie Leigh):

     What a freak show! I mean, how often do you meet a wrestling librarian?
     Yeah, about as often as you meet a high schoolgirl involved in international espionage… Okay, bad example.

Synonyms

• spying

Coordinate terms

• reconnaissance
• undercover

Derived terms

• counterespionage, counter-espionage
• industrial espionage
• lexpionage

Translations

act of learning secret information through clandestine means

• Afrikaans: spioenasie
• Amharic: ስለላ (səläla)
• Arabic: تَجَسُّس‎ m (tajassus), جَاسُوسِيَّة‎ f (jāsūsiyya)
• Armenian: լրտեսություն (hy) (lrtesutʿyun)
• Basque: espioitza (eu)
• Bulgarian: шпионаж (bg) m (špionaž)
• Catalan: espionatge (ca) 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
• Galician: espionaxe f
• Georgian: შპიონაჟი (šṗionaži), აგენტურა (agenṭura)
• German: Spionage (de) f
• Greek: κατασκοπία (el) f (kataskopía), κατασκοπεία (el) f (kataskopeía)
• Hebrew: ריגול‎ (rigol)
• Hindi: जासूसी (hi) (jāsūsī)
• Hungarian: kémkedés (hu)

• Italian: spionaggio (it) m
• Japanese: スパイ行為 (supai-kōi)
• Kazakh: тыңшылық (tıñşılıq)
• Korean: 스파이 활동 (seupai hwaldong)
• Latin: speculatio f
• Ngazidja Comorian: udjasusi 11
• Norwegian: spionasje m
• Persian: جاسوسی‎ (fa) (jâsusi)
• Polish: szpiegostwo (pl) n, wywiad (pl) m
• Portuguese: espionagem (pt) f
• Romanian: spionaj (ro) n
• Russian: шпиона́ж (ru) m (špionáž)
• Serbo-Croatian: špijunáža (sh) f
• Spanish: espionaje (es) m
• Swedish: spioneri (sv) n, spionage (sv) n
• Tabasaran: жасусвал (žasusval)
• Tagalog: pagbatyaw
• Telugu: వేగు (te) (vēgu)
• Thai: จารกรรม (th) (jaa-rá-gam)
• Turkish: espiyonaj (tr), casusluk (tr)
• Ukrainian: шпигу́нство n (špyhúnstvo), шпіона́ж m (špionáž)
• 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: ^{(please verify)} 諜報活動 (ちょうほうかつどう, chōhō katsudō)
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 간첩 (ko) (gancheop), ^{(please verify)} 간첩행위 (gancheophaeng'wi)

• Latin: ^{(please verify)} speculatio

Anagrams

• sea pigeon