confidential informant

/ˌkɒnfɪˈdɛnʃəl ɪnˈfɔː(ɹ)mənt/

//ˌkɒnfɪˈdɛnʃəl ɪnˈfɔː(ɹ)mənt// noun

"confidential-informant" is a 21-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“confidential informant” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
22
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An individual who secretly provides information to the police about wrongdoing which they are aware of due to the individual's relationship to the wrongdoer.

Corpus desk

Index EN-confidential-informant · confidential informant · English

confidential informant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 22 letters
  • VOW-8 8 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for confidential informant
PropertyValue
Headwordconfidential informant
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˌkɒnfɪˈdɛnʃəl ɪnˈfɔː(ɹ)mənt/
Letters22
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “confidential informant” in English

confidential informantsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

confidential informant is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌkɒnfɪˈdɛnʃəl ɪnˈfɔː(ɹ)mənt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An individual who secretly provides information to the police about wrongdoing which they are aware of due to the individual's relationship to the wrongdoer.".

No misspelling variants are generated for confidential informant in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is confidential informant, spelled C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T-I-A-L- -I-N-F-O-R-M-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    An individual who secretly provides information to the police about wrongdoing which they are aware of due to the individual's relationship to the wrongdoer.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "confidential informant"?
"confidential informant" is spelled C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T-I-A-L- -I-N-F-O-R-M-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌkɒnfɪˈdɛnʃəl ɪnˈfɔː(ɹ)mənt/.
What does "confidential informant" mean?
As a noun, "confidential informant" means: An individual who secretly provides information to the police about wrongdoing which they are aware of due to the individual's relationship to the wrongdoer.
How do you pronounce "confidential informant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "confidential informant" is /ˌkɒnfɪˈdɛnʃəl ɪnˈfɔː(ɹ)mənt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "confidential informant" come from?
"confidential informant" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list