as in informers
a person who provides information about another's wrongdoing
the FBI is working closely with informants to find out about the subversive group
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of informants
Closer to home, agents searched houses across New England, relying heavily on informants.
—
ABC News, 26 Apr. 2026
Federal prosecutors in Alabama secured an 11-count indictment accusing the organization of paying millions of dollars to some of those undercover informants and hiding the real purpose of the payments from its donors.
—Josh Meyer, USA Today, 25 Apr. 2026
The Justice Department is focusing on how the SPLC secretly paid informants working inside the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations the SPLC viewed as white supremacy and hate groups.
—Beth Gazley, The Conversation, 24 Apr. 2026
The 11-count indictment alleges that the civil rights nonprofit organization, best known for its work to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, lied to donors about paying confidential informants to infiltrate hate groups and deceived banks about the bank accounts used to make those payments.
—Sarah N. Lynch, CBS News, 23 Apr. 2026
What happened The Justice Department on Tuesday charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with financial crimes, accusing the civil rights organization of secretly paying informants in the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups without telling its donors.
—Peter Weber, TheWeek, 22 Apr. 2026
The department responded to his harassment report by launching an investigation into Lodes unlawfully using informants and threatening him with possible criminal prosecution, according to Darvish.
—Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2026
Quilty’s arrest comes after former New Haven police Chief Karl Jacobson was arrested by state police in February and accused of embezzling funds from an account police use to pay confidential informants in narcotics investigations.
—Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 14 Apr. 2026
Documents also revealed that some of the witnesses were FBI informants—information kept from New York police.
—Tracy Grant, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Apr. 2026
ABC News, 26 Apr. 2026
Federal prosecutors in Alabama secured an 11-count indictment accusing the organization of paying millions of dollars to some of those undercover informants and hiding the real purpose of the payments from its donors.
—Josh Meyer, USA Today, 25 Apr. 2026
The Justice Department is focusing on how the SPLC secretly paid informants working inside the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations the SPLC viewed as white supremacy and hate groups.
—Beth Gazley, The Conversation, 24 Apr. 2026
The 11-count indictment alleges that the civil rights nonprofit organization, best known for its work to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, lied to donors about paying confidential informants to infiltrate hate groups and deceived banks about the bank accounts used to make those payments.
—Sarah N. Lynch, CBS News, 23 Apr. 2026
What happened The Justice Department on Tuesday charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with financial crimes, accusing the civil rights organization of secretly paying informants in the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups without telling its donors.
—Peter Weber, TheWeek, 22 Apr. 2026
The department responded to his harassment report by launching an investigation into Lodes unlawfully using informants and threatening him with possible criminal prosecution, according to Darvish.
—Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2026
Quilty’s arrest comes after former New Haven police Chief Karl Jacobson was arrested by state police in February and accused of embezzling funds from an account police use to pay confidential informants in narcotics investigations.
—Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 14 Apr. 2026
Documents also revealed that some of the witnesses were FBI informants—information kept from New York police.
—Tracy Grant, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for informants
informers
Noun
-
And so every regime invests in having student informers.—
Anne Applebaum,
The Atlantic,
23 Jan. 2026
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Security services also rely on informers to tell them who might be using Starlink, and search internet and social media traffic for signs it has been used.—
David Rising,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Informants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/informants. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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