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espy

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To find out or observe by spying or looking.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ehspee

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɛspi

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To find out or observe (someone or something, especially if not easy to see) by spying or looking; to catch sight of; to see; to spot.

  2. transitive

    To see (someone or something) without foreplanning or unexpectedly.

noun

  1. countable

    An act of finding out or observing by spying or looking; an espial or espying.

  2. uncountable

    The act or process of learning secret information through clandestine means; espionage.

  3. countable

    A scout or spy.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To find out or observe (someone or something, especially if not easy to see) by spying or looking; to catch sight of; to see; to spot.

Used this way, espy is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

mike espyprofessor espysecretary espyespy awards

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to find out or observe (someone or something

spy

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.