What does "informant" mean?

1. (police source) someone who secretly gives information to the police or a government agency about illegal activities. 2. (linguistic source) a native speaker who provides information about their language to a researcher or student.

informant — meaning, definition & examples

Word

01police source

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Law Formal

n. someone who secretly gives information to the police or a government agency about illegal activities.

n. a person who provides privileged or confidential information about a person or organization to an agency, typically the police.

“The police caught the gang thanks to a secret informant who worked for them.”

“The detective refused to reveal the identity of his informant, fearing that any leak would compromise the ongoing undercover investigation.”

Synonyms

informertipstersource

02linguistic source

C2 · Proficiency Countable noun Science Technical · Academic

n. a native speaker who provides information about their language to a researcher or student.

n. a native speaker who provides linguistic data, such as pronunciation and grammar judgments, to a researcher.

“The researcher spent months working with a local informant to document the dying language.”

“Field linguists rely on the intuitive judgments of the native informant to determine which syntactic structures are considered well-formed within the community.”

Usage

In modern linguistics, 'consultant' or 'language helper' is often preferred to avoid the negative connotations of the police sense.

Teaching tip

While historically standard in linguistics, this term is now often replaced by 'consultant' to avoid implying the person is a 'snitch'.

Synonyms

consultantlanguage assistant