Insider
nounA person who belongs to a particular group or organisation and has access to private or privileged information.
How to spell insider
7 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce insider
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does insider mean?
- nounA person who belongs to a particular group or organisation and has access to private or privileged information.
Insider in a sentence
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The report relied on a confidential insider at the bank.
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As a longtime insider, she understood how decisions were really made.
Where does insider come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word is built from the everyday English elements 'inside' and the agent suffix '-er', which marks a person who does or occupies something. 'Inside' itself joins the preposition 'in', a native Old English word meaning 'within', to 'side', from Old English 'side', the flank or edge of a thing. The compound 'inside' had long meant the inner part or interior before people began using it to mean a position of privileged access. 'Insider' as a noun for someone within a group, organisation, or circle of knowledge emerged in the nineteenth century, and by the twentieth it was firmly attached to finance and politics, as in 'insider trading' and 'political insider'. The spelling is wholly regular and transparent, with no silent letters, which keeps it among the easier words to write from memory.
How the word is built
- in- (within)
- side (flank, edge)
- -er (one who/agent suffix)
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