agent provocateur

1. 1.

   a secret agent who incites suspected persons to commit illegal acts

   Synonymsprovocateur

   Broadersecret agent

Questions about agent provocateur

What does agent provocateur mean?

agent provocateur means "a secret agent who incites suspected persons to commit illegal acts".

What is another word for agent provocateur?

Close synonyms include provocateur. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is agent provocateur a common word?

agent provocateur is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.