窃取

• Pinyin: qiè qǔ
• Hanzi breakdown: 窃 = 穴 + 米 + 廾 (hiding in a hole to take grain — to steal stealthily); 取 = 耳 + 又 (hand taking an ear as a trophy — to take, to obtain)

Meaning

To steal; to misappropriate; to obtain something secretly and without authorisation — especially information, power, or intellectual property.

More literary and formal than 偷 (to steal). Often used in political, legal, and espionage contexts: 窃取情报 (steal intelligence), 窃取权力 (usurp power), 窃取商业机密 (steal trade secrets). The connotation of stealth and illegitimacy is strong. Appears in news reporting and official documents.

Examples

1. 境外势力企图窃取国家核心技术，相关部门已启动专项调查。 Foreign forces attempted to steal the country’s core technologies, and the relevant authorities have launched a special investigation.
2. 该前员工被指控在离职前窃取了公司大量客户数据，并出售给竞争对手。 The former employee is accused of stealing a large amount of the company’s customer data before resigning and selling it to competitors.
3. 特洛伊木马程序悄无声息地在后台运行，持续窃取用户的账号密码与银行信息。 A Trojan program ran silently in the background, continuously stealing users’ account passwords and banking information.

Usage Guide

Context: law, espionage, cybersecurity

Tone: negative

Do Say

• 检察机关指控该名前国防承包商雇员蓄意窃取涉密文件，并通过加密渠道转交境外情报人员，其行为已构成危害国家安全罪。(The procuratorate charged the former defence contractor employee with deliberately stealing classified documents and transferring them to foreign intelligence agents via encrypted channels — conduct that constitutes a crime of endangering national security.)
• 网络安全公司的报告显示，此次攻击事件中黑客利用零日漏洞悄然入侵企业内网，在长达数月内持续窃取研发数据而未被发现。(A cybersecurity company's report revealed that in this attack, hackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability to silently infiltrate the company's intranet, continuously stealing R&D data for several months without being detected.)

Don't Say

• 她窃取了我的想法 — while 窃取 can describe stealing ideas, in casual conversation it sounds overly formal; say 她抄了我的想法 (she copied my idea) or 她剽窃了我的创意 (she plagiarised my idea) depending on severity

Origin & History

窃 (to steal stealthily — a thief acting covertly) + 取 (to take/obtain)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal