fifth column

fifth col·umn

F f

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [fifth or, often, fith kol-uh m]
- /fɪfθ or, often, fɪθ ˈkɒl əm/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [fifth or, often, fith kol-uh m]
- /fɪfθ or, often, fɪθ ˈkɒl əm/

Definitions of fifth column words

noun fifth column a group of people who act traitorously and subversively out of a secret sympathy with an enemy of their country. 1
noun fifth column (originally) Franco sympathizers in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War: so called in allusion to a statement in 1936 that the insurgents had four columns marching on Madrid and a fifth column of sympathizers in the city ready to rise and betray it. 1
noun fifth column (originally) a group of Falangist sympathizers in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War who were prepared to join the four columns of insurgents marching on the city 0
noun fifth column any group of hostile or subversive infiltrators; an enemy in one's midst 0
noun fifth column a group of people who aid the enemy from within their own country 0
noun fifth column (dated) A group of people which clandestinely undermines a larger group, such as a nation, to which it is expected to be loyal. 0

See all 6 definitions of fifth column

Information block about the term

Parts of speech for Fifth column

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Fifth column

fifth column popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 34% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 67% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

fifth column usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for fifth column

noun fifth column

trojan horse — Classical Mythology. a gigantic hollow wooden horse, left by the Greeks upon their pretended abandonment of the siege of Troy. The Trojans took it into Troy and Greek soldiers concealed in the horse opened the gates to the Greek army at night and conquered the city.
underground — beneath the surface of the ground: traveling underground by subway.
collaborators — to work, one with another; cooperate, as on a literary work: They collaborated on a novel.

All 3 Synonyms of fifth column