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🇪🇸Spanish Source WordCode: ES

phishing

Pronunciation / Transliteration: ˈfiʃiŋ

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Phishing/ˈfɪʃ.ɪŋ/
nounCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #4500 frequency
Full Thesaurus
🇪🇸 Example Sentence in Spanish:

"El phishing es una forma común de estafa en línea."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    The fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

    "He fell victim to a sophisticated phishing campaign that drained his bank account."
  2. 2

    The act of attempting to acquire sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

    "The company conducts regular training sessions to help employees spot potential phishing attempts."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Coined in the mid-1990s by hackers who used fraudulent email lures to steal America Online (AOL) accounts, combining 'fishing' with 'phreaking' (phone hacking). The spelling substitutes 'ph' for 'f' following hacker slang traditions of the era, evoking the metaphor of casting a 'hook' into the internet ocean to catch unsuspecting victims' sensitive data.

Quick Vocabulary Retention Check

Which of the following is the closest synonym for "Phishing"?

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Thesaurus & Synonyms Graph

Explore Nuanced Synonyms for "Phishing"

Discover exact matches, context-specific alternatives, and antonyms with intensity ratings in the VocabDictionary Thesaurus.

View "Phishing" Synonym Map
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