Spy example sentences
Related (13): espionage, surveillance, agent, informant, undercover, reconnaissance, eavesdrop, observe, monitor, snoop, scout, detective, intelligence
"Spy" Example Sentences
Common Phrases
- spy on someone
- spy camera
- spy ring
- spy agency
- spy thriller
- secret spy
- industrial spy
- spy satellite
- spy novel
- double spy
- caught spying
- spy network
Examples by Level
A1
- A spy is a person who watches other people.
- The spy hid behind the door.
A2
- She didn't know her friend was a spy for the government.
- He tried to spy on the other team's practice.
B1
- During the war, countries would spy on each other to learn secrets.
- I caught my brother trying to spy on my phone — we had a huge fight about it.
B2
- The spy had been living under a false identity for so long that he'd almost forgotten who he really was.
- She felt uncomfortable knowing that companies spy on your browsing habits to sell you things.
C1
- The novel explores how a spy must constantly navigate the moral ambiguity between loyalty and survival.
- What makes the best spy fiction is not the gadgets but the psychological toll of maintaining a double life.
C2
- He'd spent decades as a spy, and the line between his cover and his actual self had become so blurred that even he couldn't distinguish them anymore.
- The memoir reveals how intelligence agencies spy on their own citizens under the guise of national security, raising uncomfortable questions about power and trust.
Examples by Scenario
🏠 Everyday Life
- My kid asked me if I spy on him through his phone — I didn't know how to answer honestly.
- The spy movies my dad watches are always the same plot: good guy, bad guy, betrayal.
💼 Workplace
- Someone at the office figured out that management uses software to spy on how long we're away from our desks.
- The new hire turned out to be a corporate spy — they got fired within a week.
📊 Business
- Our market research team had to spy on competitor pricing to stay competitive.
- The startup hired a consultant who was actually a spy for a larger corporation.
🛒 Buying / Shopping
- These apps spy on your shopping habits and then show you ads for things you just looked at.
- I read that retailers spy on how long you spend in each aisle to optimize store layouts.
✈️ Travel
- The hotel staff seemed to spy on guests' movements — it felt invasive.
- Traveling with someone who wants to spy on your phone makes the trip miserable.
📚 Education
- The teacher didn't want to spy on students, but the school required monitoring their online activity.
- My daughter's school uses software to spy on what websites kids visit during class.
❤️ Relationships
- He asked me to spy on his girlfriend because he didn't trust her — I refused.
- Finding out your partner tried to spy on your messages breaks something that's hard to fix.
📰 News / Politics
- The government admitted it had been using drones to spy on citizens in the border region.
- Whistleblowers exposed how the agency would spy on journalists investigating corruption.
💻 Technology
- The new phone update lets you see which apps spy on your location data.
- Hackers can spy on your webcam if you don't cover it — paranoid but true.
📝 Formal Writing
- The report documents how intelligence agencies spy on foreign governments through satellite imagery and digital surveillance.
- Regulations now require companies to disclose when they spy on user data for advertising purposes.