FIFTH COLUMN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Fifth column

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/fɪfθ kˈɑləm/ Listen

noun

fifth column n.

A group of persons inside the battle lines of a territory engaged in a conflict, who secretly sympathize with the enemy, and who engage in espionage or sabotage; sometimes also referred to as a trojan horse.

Hence, any faction of persons within a group who secretly sympathize with an enemy, especially those who engage in activities harmful to the group; an enemy in one's midst; a group of traitors.

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Etymology of 'Fifth column'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fifth column" Quotes from Famous Books

... following table. The first column gives the number of the song and the second the page in this book; the third column gives the beginning of each song in English; the fourth gives the beginning of each song in Latin. The references in the fifth column are to the little anthology called Gaudeamus (Leipzig, Teubner, 1879); those in the sixth column are to the printed edition of the Benedictbeuern Codex, which goes by the title of Carmina Burana (Stuttgart, auf Kosten das Literarischen Vereins, ...

— Wine, Women, and Song - Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse • Various