industrial espionage
/ɪnˈdʌstɹɪəl ˈɛspiəˌnɑːʒ/
"industrial-espionage" is a 19-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“industrial espionage” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 20
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The use of clandestine methods to acquire secret information for commercial advantage.
Corpus desk
Index EN-industrial-espionage · industrial espionage · English
industrial espionage · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 20 letters
- VOW-9 9 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | industrial espionage |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɪnˈdʌstɹɪəl ˈɛspiəˌnɑːʒ/ |
| Letters | 20 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “industrial espionage” in English
Rare enough to double-check
industrial espionage is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɪnˈdʌstɹɪəl ˈɛspiəˌnɑːʒ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
industrial espionage doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From industrial + espionage. The correct English form is industrial espionage, spelled I-N-D-U-S-T-R-I-A-L- -E-S-P-I-O-N-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1The use of clandestine methods to acquire secret information for commercial advantage.
- 2Spying by an employer on labor union activities of employees and on labor unions.
- 3Spying on industrial activities for military advantage.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how industrial espionage appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The American Consul at Leipzig requested the Chamber of Commerce of that city to furnish him with certain information concerning the preparation of rabbit’s skin for the hat trade. The Chamber replied that, although it was desirous of promoting the trade of Germany with foreign countries, it must, as a matter of principle, decline to furnish technical rep…
Etymology
From industrial + espionage.
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.