informant

American  

[in-fawr-muhnt] / ɪnˈfɔr mənt /

noun

1. a person who informs inform or gives information; informer.

   Synonyms:

   tipster, adviser, source

2. a person who supplies social or cultural data in answer to the questions of an investigator.

3. Linguistics. a native speaker of a language who supplies utterances and forms for one analyzing or learning the language.

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informant British  

/ ɪnˈfɔːmənt /

noun

1. a person who gives information about a thing, a subject being studied, etc

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Etymology

Origin of informant

1655–65; < Latin infōrmant- (stem of infōrmāns ) present participle of infōrmāre. See inform ¹, -ant

Example Sentences

They were in fact a father-son team of DEA informants wearing hidden tape recorders.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the end, Thomas More and his informants caught up with the fugitive.

From The Wall Street Journal

Relatives say a police informant initially demanded money from them in exchange for not reporting them.

From The Wall Street Journal

Arguing for secrecy, the security service told judges it had stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying informants' identities.

From BBC

Paramount President Jeff Shell has fired back in his ugly feud with a Las Vegas gambler and FBI informant, contending that Robert “R.J.”

From Los Angeles Times