spy
/spaɪ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.24 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage).
Example Sentences
- "The dead leap at the throat, destroy The meaning of the day; dark forms Have scaled your walls, and spies betray Old secrets to amorphous swarms."
- "Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee."
- "During the Cold War, Russia and America would each spy on each other for recon."
- "I think I can spy that hot guy coming over here."
- "VVherefore lift up your heads, brethren, and look about vvith your eyes, ſpy vvhat things are to be reformed in the Church of England."
- "One in reading, skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration."
Etymology
From Middle English spien, aphetic variant of earlier espien (“to espy”), from Old French espier (“to spy”), from Frankish *spehōn (“to spy”), from Proto-Germanic *spehōną (“to see, look”), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”). Akin to German spähen (“to spy”), Dutch spieden (“to spy”). The noun displaced native Old English sċēawere (literally “watcher”), which was also the word for "mirror." In this sense, the verb displaced Old English sċēawian, which was also the word for "to watch" and became the Modern English word show. Distant cognate vie PIE with Latin speculātor, Ancient Greek κατάσκοπος (katáskopos). Compare typologically Russian согляда́тай (sogljadátaj) (akin to гляде́ть (gljadétʹ)).