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informant ~ informer:
“Informant” is ‘a person who gives information; a native speaker of a language who gives detailed information about his/her language to another person, usually a foreign student or scholar studying that particular language’,
e.g.
Most journalists refuse to disclose the identity of their informants.
A German research scholar is looking for a good informant.
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“Informer” is ‘a person who informs against a criminal or fugitive (=an escaped criminal) to the police’,
e.g.
Most informers are themselves petty thieves.
In recent years, terrorist groups have killed several innocent villagers suspecting that they were informers, passing on their whereabouts to the police.
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