insider

From inside + -er.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsaɪdɚ/, /ˈɪnsaɪdɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  • Homophone: inciter
• Rhymes: -aɪdə(ɹ)

insider (plural insiders)

1. A person who has special knowledge about the inner workings of a group, organization, or institution.

   Antonym: outsider

   Near-synonyms: initiate, old hand, habitué

   • 1923 July 2, “‘Big Board’ Failures”, in Time:

     Heavy losses were sustained in Simms Petroleum, which took a greater toll from supposed "Wall Street insiders" than from the general public.

   • 2007 December 19, Jonathan Clayton, “Profile: Zuma charmed wives and a nation”, in Times of London, UK:

     He is also an astute ANC insider who spent ten years on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela and the other “grandees” of the movement.

   • 2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.

   • 2026 March 18, Christian Wolmar, “Wales sets example with long-term rail strategy”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 43:

     That, as one of my more sceptical industry insiders put it, is because there is a reluctance to commit funds to any of these plans - and we can put the blame firmly on the fact that HS2 is eating up £7bn per year for the whole term of this parliament.

2. A person who is within an enclosed space.
   • 1849, Herman Melville, chapter 33, in Redburn: His First Voyage. […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     To the insider, the ceiling is like a small firmament twinkling with astral radiations.

• Dutch: insider
• German: Insider
• Japanese: インサイダー (insaidā)
• Swedish: insider

• irenids, neriids, sirenid

Borrowed from English insider.

insider c

1. an insider (person with inside information)

   Insidern sitter på insiderinformation

   The insider has inside information

• insideraffär
• insiderbrott
• insiderinformation

• “insider”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “insider”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)