informants
They share secrets
Informants are people who provide information, especially to authorities.
The word often implies secret or privileged knowledge: a police informant supplies tips about criminal activity, an anthropologist's informant shares cultural insights from within a community.
The term can carry negative connotations of betrayal—The gang discovered he was an informant—or neutral ones depending on context.
Those who act for others
- operativesThose who execute missions
- assetsOwned items of value
- sourcesPoints of origin
- handlersThose who manage or control
moles · surveillance · covert · classified · briefing · espionage · counterintelligence · reconnaissance
Rodent or informer
- tattletaleOne who informs on others
- finkContemptible informer
- squealerOne who betrays secrets
- narkPolice tipster, slang
stoolie · grass · canary · blabbermouth · tipster · telltale · betrayer · turncoat
Those actively involved
- subjectsAreas of study
- intervieweesPeople being formally questioned
- respondentsThose who answer queries
- ethnographySystematic study of peoples
fieldwork · anthropology · linguistics · qualitative · data · interviews · native-speaker · oral-history
People you know professionally
- tipstersThose offering predictions
- leadsGoes in front
- tipsExtras for servers
- anonymousOf unknown origin
reliable · confidential · inside · police · journalist · newsroom · off-the-record · deep-throat
Make known publicly
- disclosureAct of revealing information
- leakEscape through a breach
- testimonySworn statement as evidence
- corruptionDishonest abuse of power
fraud · misconduct · transparency · accountability · protection · retaliation · ethics · courage
agents
Those who act for others
- operativesThose who execute missions
- assetsOwned items of value
- sourcesPoints of origin
handlers · moles · surveillance · covert · classified · briefing · espionage · counterintelligence · reconnaissance · intercept
rat
Rodent or informer
- tattletaleOne who informs on others
- finkContemptible informer
- squealerOne who betrays secrets
nark · stoolie · grass · canary · blabbermouth · tipster · telltale · betrayer · turncoat · traitor
participants
Those actively involved
- subjectsAreas of study
- intervieweesPeople being formally questioned
- respondentsThose who answer queries
ethnography · fieldwork · anthropology · linguistics · qualitative · data · interviews · native-speaker · oral-history · testimony
contacts
People you know professionally
anonymous · reliable · confidential · inside · police · journalist · newsroom · off-the-record · deep-throat · exclusive
expose
Make known publicly
- disclosureAct of revealing information
- leakEscape through a breach
- testimonySworn statement as evidence
corruption · fraud · misconduct · transparency · accountability · protection · retaliation · ethics · courage · evidence
- police workpatrol, arrests, arrest, stings, investigation
- prisonsprison, inmates, cells, prisons, prisoner
- covert operationsundercover agents, covert ops, stings, infiltration, deep cover
- Traffickingdrug trafficking, trafficking, trafficker, drug smuggling, smuggling
- criminal investigationsinvestigations, crime scene, crime scenes, crime scene investigation, crime scene analysis
- Dystopia1984, Nineteen Eighty-Four, dystopian fiction, totalitarianism, Brave New World
informantssuspects
Thinks someone's guilty
targets · defendants · perpetrators · subjects · criminals
informantsloyalists
Faithful to established authority
confidants · protectors · accomplices · co-conspirators · enablers
informantsinvestigators
Those who examine facts
interrogators · handlers · detectives · questioners · intelligence officers
- confidential informantSecret source for authorities
- police informantCrime tipster for authorities