What does "saboteur" mean?

A person who intentionally causes the destruction of property in order to hinder the efforts of their enemy.

How do you pronounce "saboteur"?

Pronounced //ˌsæbəˈtɜː(ɹ)//.

Common synonyms include: collaborator, diversionist, fellow traveler, fifth column, fifth columnist, fifth columnist.

//ˌsæbəˈtɜː(ɹ)// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A person who intentionally causes the destruction of property in order to hinder the efforts of their enemy.
2
a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader wordnet
3
someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks wordnet

Borrowed from French saboteur.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.