es ‧ pi ‧ o ‧ nage /ˈespiənɑːʒ/ BrE AmE noun [uncountable]
[ Date: 1700-1800 ; Language: French ; Origin: espionnage , from espion 'spy' ]
the activity of secretly finding out secret information and giving it to a country’s enemies or a company’s competitors SYN spying ⇨ spy :
a campaign of industrial espionage against his main rival
⇨ ↑ counter-espionage
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THESAURUS
▪ spy someone whose job is to find out secret information about another country:
Stalin controlled a network of spies.
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The film is basically a spy story.
▪ agent/secret agent someone who works for a government or police department in order to get secret information about another country or organization:
a secret agent working for MI5
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He is the FBI’s best undercover agent (=one who works secretly and pretends to be someone else) .
▪ double agent someone who finds out an enemy country’s secrets for their own country but who also gives secrets to the enemy:
a former CIA double agent who also worked for the KGB
▪ mole someone who works for an organization while secretly giving information to its enemies:
A mole in the government was leaking information to the press.
▪ informer someone who secretly tells the police about criminal activities, especially for money:
Acting on information from an informer, the police raided the house.
▪ espionage the work that spies do:
He is serving a 20-year prison sentence for espionage.