Spying

//ˈspaɪ.ɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    espionage; the act of secretly gathering information countable, uncountable

    "There are two ways in which the obsessive character of jealousy tends to exert itself: one is in the need to know, the endless tests and investigations and spyings that are so characteristic of jealousy."

  2. 2
    the act of detecting something; catching sight of something wordnet
  3. 3
    the act of keeping a secret watch for intelligence purposes wordnet
  4. 4
    keeping a secret or furtive watch wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of spy form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
detectionbuggingcatchingcloak-and-dagger workcounterespionagecounterintelligence

Example

More examples

"She is an old hand at spying on tax evaders."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From spy + -ing.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle English spyinge, spiyng, spyeng, equivalent to spy + -ing.

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