secret agents
Covert intelligence gatherers
Secret agents are people employed by governments or organizations to gather intelligence, conduct espionage, or carry out covert operations.
The term evokes spy fiction—James Bond is cinema's most famous secret agent—though real intelligence work is typically less glamorous.
The phrase emphasizes concealment: their employer and mission remain hidden.
Also called spies or operatives.
- tradecraftEspionage methods and skills
- spycraftMethods of secret agents
- counterintelligenceDefense against enemy espionage
- dead dropsConcealed exchange locations
- drop zoneDesignated touchdown area
mission · sleeper agents · deep cover · mole · operative · code name · surveillance · codebreaking · spy networks · clandestine · covert operations · handler · HUMINT · undercover · spy · hidden identities · false passport · classified information
- espionagespy, spies, double agents, spying, moles
- classified intelclassified, classified documents, state secrets, military secrets, defense secrets
- Norway WWIIGerman occupation, Nazi occupation, home front, German invasion, Nazi invasion
- crimefighterscops, detectives, FBI, police, sheriffs
- Robert LudlumJason Bourne, The Bourne Identity, spy fiction
secret agentspublic officials
Government position holders
public servants · public figures · celebrities · press secretaries · diplomats
secret agentsdouble agents
Spies betraying their employers
moles · defectors · turncoats · traitors · foreign agents
secret, agent, secretly, secrecy, secretive, espionage, secretion, secret agent, secrete