secret agent
Americannoun
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an agent of a secret service.
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(loosely) a person employed to collect the military secrets of one country and relay them to another, especially a person living in a foreign country while so working for their own nation; spy.
noun
Etymology
Origin of secret agent
First recorded in 1830–40
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Over the next few decades, the secret agent opted for the security of running atop moving trains and hanging off the side of helicopters.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 8, 2026
Then in 1990 he got attention for his turn as the hard-nosed secret agent handling Anne Parillaud's female assassin Nikita, in Besson's hit film of the same name.
From Barron's • Oct. 31, 2025
As John Black, across more than 4,200 episodes, Hogestyn was a spy, mercenary, police officer, private investigator and secret agent.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 29, 2024
During three meetings with the undercover FBI agent, Rocha began to divulge details about his time working as a secret agent for the Cuban government, the charging document described.
From BBC • Feb. 29, 2024
In that mood of lazy righteousness he wallowed in Guitar’s bed, the same righteousness that had made him tail his mother like a secret agent when she left the house a week or so ago.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
