"fifth columnist" meaning in English

See fifth columnist in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: fifth columnists [plural]
Etymology: From fifth column + -ist. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|fifth column|ist}} fifth column + -ist Head templates: {{en-noun}} fifth columnist (plural fifth columnists)
  1. someone who belongs to a group that secretly undermines another organization Categories (topical): People Translations (a member of a fifth column): quintacolumnista [feminine, masculine] (Catalan), femtekolonnemand [common-gender] (Danish), viideskolonnalainen (Finnish), петтоколона́ш (pettokolonáš) [masculine] (Macedonian), femtekolonnist [masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), quinta-colunista [feminine, masculine] (Portuguese), femtekolonnare [common-gender] (Swedish), quisling [common-gender] (Swedish), kollaboratör [common-gender] (Swedish)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fifth column",
        "3": "ist"
      },
      "expansion": "fifth column + -ist",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From fifth column + -ist.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fifth columnists",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "fifth columnist (plural fifth columnists)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -ist",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Catalan translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Danish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Macedonian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              145,
              162
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1983 February 12, Michael Bronski, “Tootsie and the Gender Benders”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 29, page 14:",
          "text": "In both cases audiences can listen to the characters and actually hear them simply because both characters are not who they seem to be; they are fifth column-ists, interlopers in the battlefield of sexual politics. If a homosexual character or a real woman gave the speeches that Andrews and Hoffman gave they would be written off as crackpots by the movie-going public.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "someone who belongs to a group that secretly undermines another organization"
      ],
      "id": "en-fifth_columnist-en-noun-xjQD3Wav",
      "links": [
        [
          "undermine",
          "undermine"
        ],
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "quintacolumnista"
        },
        {
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "femtekolonnemand"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "word": "viideskolonnalainen"
        },
        {
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "pettokolonáš",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "петтоколона́ш"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "femtekolonnist"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "quinta-colunista"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "femtekolonnare"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "quisling"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "kollaboratör"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "fifth columnist"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fifth column",
        "3": "ist"
      },
      "expansion": "fifth column + -ist",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From fifth column + -ist.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fifth columnists",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "fifth columnist (plural fifth columnists)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms suffixed with -ist",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Catalan translations",
        "Terms with Danish translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with Macedonian translations",
        "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
        "Terms with Portuguese translations",
        "Terms with Swedish translations",
        "en:People"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              145,
              162
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1983 February 12, Michael Bronski, “Tootsie and the Gender Benders”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 29, page 14:",
          "text": "In both cases audiences can listen to the characters and actually hear them simply because both characters are not who they seem to be; they are fifth column-ists, interlopers in the battlefield of sexual politics. If a homosexual character or a real woman gave the speeches that Andrews and Hoffman gave they would be written off as crackpots by the movie-going public.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "someone who belongs to a group that secretly undermines another organization"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "undermine",
          "undermine"
        ],
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "quintacolumnista"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "femtekolonnemand"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "word": "viideskolonnalainen"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "pettokolonáš",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "петтоколона́ш"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "femtekolonnist"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "quinta-colunista"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "femtekolonnare"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "quisling"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "a member of a fifth column",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "kollaboratör"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fifth columnist"
}

Download raw JSONL data for fifth columnist meaning in English (2.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (813e02a and ea19a0a). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.