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dossier

UK/ˈdɒs.i.eɪ/US/ˈdɔs.jeɪ/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,969 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: dossiers

A dossier is a file of collected information about somebody. Compile a dossier, a thick dossier, a dossier on him.

The word carries a whiff of surveillance that file does not — a dossier is assembled about a person, usually without their knowing. It is French, and the name comes from the bulge on the spine of a bundle of papers, from dos, the back. Note the pronunciation, which keeps the French shape.

Definitions of dossier

  1. 1noundossierA file of collected information about somebody.C1

    “The detective kept a thick dossier on the suspect's movements and friends.”

dossier is a file.

Where it comes from

  1. French

    dossier

  2. English, today

    dossier

French dossier.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Spying & Secrecy

Practise this word

dossier in the wild

  • On publication, serious press comment was generally critical of the dossier for tameness and for the seeming lack of any genuinely new evidence.

    September Dossier

  • The dossier contains confirmation of information that we either knew or most certainly should have been willing to assume.

    September Dossier

  • In 2013, the Home Office stated that all relevant information had been passed to the police, and that Dickens' dossier had not been retained.

    Westminster paedophile dossier

  • Steele became the focus of controversy after he authored a 35-page series of memos for a controversial political opposition research report known as the Steele dossier.

    Christopher Steele

  • Trump and his allies have falsely claimed the Crossfire Hurricane FBI probe into Russian interference was launched due to Steele's dossier.

    Christopher Steele

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.