# informant

/ˌɪnˈfɔɹmənt/ (US) · /ɪnfˈɔːmənt/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/informant
Updated: 2026-08-27

## Senses

### 1. police source

noun · CEFR C1 · Formal

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

For teachers: 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.

### 2. linguistic source

noun · CEFR C2 · Technical · Academic

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

For teachers: 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'.

## Examples

- The researcher interviewed a local informant about the dialect.
- The linguist spent months working with a native informant to document the grammar of the endangered language.
- While the police rely on a confidential informant for leads, the anthropologist treats their informant as a primary source of cultural and linguistic knowledge during fieldwork.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.