For example, a public address system may be used to make an announcement asking for "Inspector Sands" to attend a particular area, which staff will recognise as a code word for a fire or bomb threat, and the general public will ignore.
[1][2] Code names are used for military and espionage purposes as labels for people, locations, objects, projects and plans the details of which are intended to remain secret to the uninitiated.
[4] The United States Navy mistook the code word "Friend of Dorothy," meaning an LGBT individual, as meaning literally a person who was a friend of someone by the name of "Dorothy," and investigated on that basis.
[5] An informal code word is a term used without formal or prior agreement to communicate to a subset of listeners or readers predisposed to see its double meaning.
[10] Informal code words can find use in propaganda, distinct from use of euphemistic code words to delay or avoid emotional responses in the audience.