informant

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in·for·mant

(ĭn-fôr′mənt)

a. One that gives information.

b. One who informs against others; an informer.

2. One who furnishes linguistic or cultural information to a researcher.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

informant

(ɪnˈfɔːmənt)

a person who gives information about a thing, a subject being studied, etc

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

in•form•ant

(ɪnˈfɔr mənt)

n.

1. a person who informs or gives information; informer.

2. a person who supplies social or cultural data in answer to the questions of an investigator.

3. a native speaker of a language who supplies utterances or other data for one analyzing or learning the language.

[1655–65; < Latin]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	informant - a person who supplies information source communicator - a person who communicates with others betrayer, blabber, informer, squealer, rat - one who reveals confidential information in return for money leaker - a surreptitious informant; "the president wanted to know who the leakers were" passive source - an informant who is not assigned to obtain specific intelligence but who routinely passes on whatever information he or she has whistle blower, whistleblower, whistle-blower - an informant who exposes wrongdoing within an organization in the hope of stopping it; "the law gives little protection to whistleblowers who feel the public has a right to know what is going on"; "the whistleblower was fired for exposing the conditions in mental hospitals"
	2.	informant - someone who sees an event and reports what happened witness, witnesser beholder, observer, perceiver, percipient - a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses attester, attestant - someone who affirms or vouches for the correctness or truth or genuineness of something speaker, talker, verbaliser, verbalizer, utterer - someone who expresses in language; someone who talks (especially someone who delivers a public speech or someone especially garrulous); "the speaker at commencement"; "an utterer of useful maxims" deponent, deposer, testifier - a person who testifies or gives a deposition

informant

noun

One who gives incriminating information about others:

informer, tattler, tattletale.

Informal: rat, tipster.

Slang: fink, snitch, snitcher, squealer, stoolie, stool pigeon.

Translations

مُخْبِر

informátor-ka

meddeler

Gewährsmann Informant

informateur

adatközlõinformátor

heimildamaîur, uppljóstrari

informatore

hjemmelsmann informant

informátor

bilgi veren kimseihbarcı

密告者提供消息的人

informant

[ɪnˈfɔːmənt] N → informante mf
my informant → el que me lo dijo
who was your informant? → ¿quién se lo dijo?

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

informant

[ɪnˈfɔː^rmənt] n

(gen) → informateur/trice m/f

(= police informer) → indicateur/trice m/f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

informant

→ Informant(in) m(f); according to my informant the book is out of print → wie man mir mitteilt or berichtet, ist das Buch vergriffen

(police) informant → Polizeispitzel m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

informant

[ɪnˈfɔːmənt] n → informatore/trice

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

inform

(inˈfoːm) verb

1. to tell; to give knowledge to. Please inform me of your intentions in this matter; I was informed that you were absent from the office.

2. (with against or on) to tell facts to eg the police about (a criminal etc). He informed against his fellow thieves.

inˈformant noun

someone who tells or informs. He passed on the news to us, but would not say who his informant had been.

ˌinforˈmation noun

facts told or knowledge gained or given. Can you give me any information about this writer?; the latest information on the progress of the war; He is full of interesting bits of information.

inˈformative (-mətiv) adjective

giving useful information. an informative book.

inˈformer noun

a person who informs against a criminal etc.

ˌinformation ˌsuperˈhighway noun

a fast computer channel through which information, pictures etc are sent from one computer to another.

inforˈmation techˌnology noun

the study and use of electronic systems and computers for storing, analysing and utilizing information.

information does not have a plural: some information ; any information .

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References in classic literature ?

When not doing so himself, he may have some informant skulking about, in the person of a watchman, porter, or such-like hanger-on of Staple.

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" The people of the house--my informant talked with many of them--you know, one of those enormous houses of shame and misery.

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The sound of our informant's voice directed him to the library; he entered and motioning him out, shut the door.

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When with due circumspection Napoleon was informed that Moscow was empty, he looked angrily at his informant, turned away, and silently continued to walk to and fro.

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Questioning my informant about Alicia next, I found that he knew very little about her relations with her father in later years.

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I dare say the resemblance is not so exact, though, as that your informant became known to you through a letter from a correspondent with whom he had deposited money?

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Now and then (as Magdalen understood from her informant) there were days, both in winter and summer, when the admiral became anxious about the condition of the rooms which he was not occupying at the time, and when he insisted on investigating the state of the furniture, the pictures, and the books with his own eyes.

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I only repeat what I have been told, and like my informant I can do no more.

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This, Captain Bonneville was assured by a veteran hunter in his company, was the great valley of the Seedske-dee; and the same informant would have fain persuaded him that a small stream, three feet deep, which he came to on the

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For long I had known that Mary contemplated the writing of a book, my informant being David, who, because I have published a little volume on Military tactics, and am preparing a larger one on the same subject (which I shall never finish), likes to watch my methods of composition, how I dip, and so on, his desire being to help her.

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Anybody who could invent a new imitation had been sure of a fortune from old Durham, said Jurgis' informant; but it was hard to think of anything new in a place where so many sharp wits had been at work for so long; where men welcomed tuberculosis in the cattle they were feeding, because it made them fatten more quickly; and where they bought up all the old rancid butter left over in the grocery stores of a continent, and "oxidized" it by a forced-air process, to take away the odor, rechurned it with skim milk, and sold it in bricks in the cities!

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If I had been told this morning that I should consent to consider you as a possible husband, I should have thought my informant a little crazy.