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🇩🇪German Source WordCode: DE

Saboteur

Pronunciation / Transliteration: za-boˈtøːɐ̯

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Saboteur/ˌsæb.əˈtɜːr/
nounCEFR C1 (Advanced)Top #8500 frequency
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🇩🇪 Example Sentence in German:

"Der Saboteur beschädigte die Maschinerie."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A person who deliberately destroys, damages, or obstructs material, production, or activities, typically for political, economic, or malicious advantage.

    "The security team caught the saboteur attempting to corrupt the main server files."
  2. 2

    Someone who ruins or undermines a plan, project, or relationship through covert disruptive actions.

    "She realized that her own self-doubt was her worst saboteur when preparing for the interview."
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Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the French word 'saboteur', stemming from 'saboter' (to botch, or to walk noisily with wooden shoes called 'sabots'), dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historically associated with industrial workers throwing wooden shoes into machinery to disrupt production, the term evolved to describe anyone who deliberately destroys, damages, or obstructs a cause or institution.

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