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as in spy
a person who tries secretly to obtain information for one country in the territory of another usually unfriendly country the embassy's staff likely contains at least one emissary who reports to the home country's chief of intelligence

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of emissary That was the year when Fred Popenoe, proprietor of the West India Gardens nursery in Altadena, sent an emissary to Mexico with the task of bringing back budwood cuttings for the purpose of grafting them onto avocado seedlings, with the hope that some would become commercially successful varieties. Joshua Siskin, Orange County Register, 1 Feb. 2025 Being the destination for the first overseas visit by the top U.S. diplomat would have been big for Panama in any case, but Rubio comes as the emissary of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly suggested the U.S. retake the Panama Canal. Alma Solís, Chicago Tribune, 30 Jan. 2025 Qin Fu is supposed to be meeting an emissary of China’s Empress Dowager on arrival, sent to catch a gang of political fugitives, but Holmes encourages his new protégé to assume his identity – apparently their names sound similar in Chinese – and investigate the Chinatown murders on his behalf. James Marsh, Deadline, 31 Jan. 2025 What does this mean for the ubiquitous AI emissary, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who wasn’t at the press conference? R. Scott Raynovich, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for emissary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for emissary
Noun
  • Not content with scrapping his role as a club ambassador, United could look into selling Fergie as a commodity.
    Tim Spiers, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2025
  • In January, Trump named Gibson, along with Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight, as special ambassadors to Hollywood.
    Raechal Shewfelt, EW.com, 4 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Chilean writer-director Felipe Gálvez, whose debut feature The Settlers premiered in Cannes in 2023, has set his second feature film as Impunity, a spy thriller set in the late 1990s around the arrest of dictator Augusto Pinochet.
    Diana Lodderhose, Deadline, 1 Apr. 2025
  • Elon Musk visited the CIA headquarters on Monday for talks on government efficiency, the spy agency director of public affairs Liz Lyons told Axios.
    Barak Ravid, Axios, 1 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin's close adviser Kirill Dmitriev is expected to visit Washington this week for talks on Ukraine with President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, two U.S. officials tell Axios.
    Barak Ravid, Axios, 2 Apr. 2025
  • Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy who has been heavily involved in ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel as well as those to stop the Ukraine war, has advocated for diplomatic, rather than military, solutions.
    Ron Estes, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Despite still not having an agent, Marshall had her managers secure her a script and even cut the reel for her self-tape herself.
    Ronda Racha Penrice, HollywoodReporter, 5 Apr. 2025
  • The defense pointed to several potential suspects at the home at the time, including Albert, his nephew and their friend, an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives who had been exchanging flirty text messages with Read.
    N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, 5 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • While some believe Trump's approval ratings will fall on their own without much action from Democrats, others want elected representatives to be doing more.
    Jason D. Greenblatt, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Apr. 2025
  • Meanwhile, an Ohio state representative has also proposed a bill prohibiting adding fluoride to public water systems.
    Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 2 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Back in 2015 Atwell had her own show, Agent Carter, back in the Agents of SHIELD era, chronicling her time as a government operative for two seasons.
    Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 5 Apr. 2025
  • During the Cold War, a similar ban was imposed in 1987 after a U.S. Marine in Moscow was compromised by a Soviet operative.
    Lee Habeeb, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Avoid getting stuck in daily operations—delegate effectively and focus on high-value contributions.
    Michel Koopman, Forbes.com, 2 Apr. 2025
  • Such industrial excavations risk wiping out untold (and, indeed, as yet unseen) natural wonders, though delegates of the ISA are unable to reach an agreement as to how to curb or monitor them.
    Guy Lodge, Variety, 31 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Since the summer of 2023, more than a dozen high-ranking figures in China’s defense establishment have been ousted in a sweeping purge that focused on the country’s nuclear force and equipment procurement, including two defense ministers promoted to the CMC by Xi.
    Nectar Gan, CNN Money, 4 Apr. 2025
  • The country’s minister of tourism and sports said that while more than 1,000 hotel rooms were canceled in the immediate aftermath of the quake, the impact of the natural disaster on tourism is expected to be short term in nature, according to the report.
    Monica Pitrelli, CNBC, 4 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Emissary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/emissary. Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.

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