INFORMANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does informant mean? 

• INFORMANT (noun)
  The noun INFORMANT has 2 senses:

1. a person who supplies information

2. someone who sees an event and reports what happened

  Familiarity information: INFORMANT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INFORMANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who supplies information

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

informant; source

Hypernyms ("informant" is a kind of...):

communicator (a person who communicates with others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "informant"):

betrayer; blabber; informer; rat; squealer (one who reveals confidential information in return for money)

leaker (a surreptitious informant)

passive source (an informant who is not assigned to obtain specific intelligence but who routinely passes on whatever information he or she has)

whistle-blower; whistle blower; whistleblower (an informant who exposes wrongdoing within an organization in the hope of stopping it)

Derivation:

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who sees an event and reports what happened

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

informant; witness; witnesser

Hypernyms ("informant" is a kind of...):

beholder; observer; perceiver; percipient (a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses)

speaker; talker; utterer; verbaliser; verbalizer (someone who expresses in language; someone who talks (especially someone who delivers a public speech or someone especially garrulous))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "informant"):

attestant; attester (someone who affirms or vouches for the correctness or truth or genuineness of something)

deponent; deposer; testifier (a person who testifies or gives a deposition)

Derivation:

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

 Context examples 

Ere many minutes had elapsed, I was again on my feet, however, and again searching something—a resource, or at least an informant.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I did not wish to seem too eager, or to let my informant know or guess too much, so, thanking him in the usual manner, I strolled away.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Twenty Eight, returned my informant, speaking throughout in a low tone, and looking over his shoulder as we walked along the passage, to guard himself from being overheard, in such an unlawful reference to these Immaculates, by Creakle and the rest; Twenty Eight (also transportation) got a place, and robbed a young master of a matter of two hundred and fifty pounds in money and valuables, the night before they were going abroad.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)