espionage
playDefinition of espionage
: the practice of spying or using spies to obtain information about the plans and activities especially of a foreign government or a competing company industrial espionage
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Examples of espionage in a Sentence
He was charged with several counts of espionage.
the acts of espionage on behalf of the Confederacy carried on by Belle Boyd and Rose Greenhow
Recent Examples of espionage from the Web
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Mexico’s opposition National Action Party and the Inter-American Commission have called for an outside investigation into the espionage.
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This 1502 map, created by an unknown Portuguese mapmaker in Lisbon, was once the subject of international espionage.
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An Iranian court has sentenced an American graduate student to 10 years in prison for spying, the latest case of a U.S. citizen accused of espionage by the Islamic republic.
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But—and this is the most important part of this—in the past, without Facebook and Gmail and Twitter and a million other forms of communications, those hacks represented mostly just interference, rather than actual infiltrating espionage.
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Some believe that because the espionage trip didn't go as planned and her plane was shot down by the Japanese, Earhart was held captive for years.
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Still, other investigators think espionage did in fact play a role, but not in the way History has put forward.
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Edward Snowden tells us that this was not an intentional attack against the Syrian internet but this was a case of someone trying to do espionage and inadvertently making a mistake and causing an outage to the internet.
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But with the motives of hackers fast evolving — from cyberterrorism to industry espionage to disrupting operations to stealing field data — risks are rising fast, along with the stakes, the report found.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'espionage.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of espionage
French espionnage, from Middle French, from espionner to spy, from espion spy, from Old Italian spione, from spia, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German spehōn to spy — more at spy
Other Government and Politics Terms
ESPIONAGE Defined for English Language Learners
espionage
playDefinition of espionage for English Language Learners
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: the things that are done to find out secrets from enemies or competitors : the activity of spying
ESPIONAGE Defined for Kids
espionage
playDefinition of espionage for Students
: the practice of spying : the use of spies
Law Dictionary
espionage
playLegal Definition of espionage
: the practice of gathering, transmitting, or losing through gross negligence information relating to the defense of the U.S. with the intent that or with reason to believe that the information will be used to the injury of the U.S. or the advantage of a foreign nation
Learn More about espionage
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for espionage Spanish Central: Translation of espionage Nglish: Translation of espionage for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of espionage for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about espionage
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