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secret
[ see-krit ]
adjective
- done, made, or conducted without the knowledge of others:
secret negotiations.
Synonyms: covert, hidden, clandestine
- kept from the knowledge of any but the initiated or privileged:
a secret password.
Synonyms: confidential, private
- faithful or cautious in keeping confidential matters confidential; close-mouthed; discreet.
- designed or working to escape notice, knowledge, or observation: the secret police.
a secret drawer;
the secret police.
- secluded, sheltered, or withdrawn:
a secret hiding place.
- beyond ordinary human understanding; esoteric.
Synonyms: mysterious, cryptic, occult
- (of information, a document, etc.)
- bearing the classification secret.
- limited to persons authorized to use information documents, etc., so classified.
noun
- something that is or is kept secret, hidden, or concealed.
- a mystery:
the secrets of nature.
- a reason or explanation not immediately or generally apparent.
- a method, formula, plan, etc., known only to the initiated or the few: a trade secret.
the secret of happiness;
a trade secret.
- a classification assigned to information, a document, etc., considered less vital to security than top-secret but more vital than confidential, and limiting its use to persons who have been cleared, as by various government agencies, as trustworthy to handle such material. Compare classification ( def 5 ).
- (initial capital letter) Liturgy. a variable prayer in the Roman and other Latin liturgies, said inaudibly by the celebrant after the offertory and immediately before the preface.
secret
/ ˈsiːkrɪt /
adjective
- kept hidden or separate from the knowledge of others cryptic
- known only to initiates
a secret password
- hidden from general view or use
a secret garden
- able or tending to keep things private or to oneself
- operating without the knowledge of outsiders
a secret society
- outside the normal range of knowledge
noun
- something kept or to be kept hidden
- something unrevealed; mystery
- an underlying explanation, reason, etc, that is not apparent
the secret of success
- a method, plan, etc, known only to initiates
- liturgy a variable prayer, part of the Mass, said by the celebrant after the offertory and before the preface
- in the secretamong the people who know a secret
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Derived Forms
- ˈsecretly, adverb
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Other Words From
- se·cret·ly adverb
- se·cret·ness noun
- non·se·cret adjective noun
- qua·si-se·cret adjective
- sem·i·se·cret adjective
- su·per·se·cret noun
- ul·tra·se·cret adjective
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of secret1
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Idioms and Phrases
- in secret, unknown to others; in private; secretly:
A resistance movement was already being organized in secret.
More idioms and phrases containing secret
see in secret ; open secret .Discover More
Example Sentences
In secret, before the referendum, the council went ahead and fluoridated the water anyway.
The death toll, which experts believe has been significantly undercut by secret burials, stands at 7,905.
Henri Paul actually worked for the French Secret Service and he had €200,000 in his account when he only earned €30,000 a year.
Never mind the huge buildup of clandestine operatives and secret warriors since 9/11.
Slowly, slowly, dance classes may cease to be such secret and guilty pleasures in Iran.
The remarkable thing was that all the hurrying people she met seemed also each of them to be on a secret and mystic errand.
To Berthier, if to any one, Bonaparte entrusted his secret designs, for he knew that he could do so in safety.
He must be The saltest fish that swims the sea.And, oh!He has a secret woe!
Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law at Ingolstadt, founded the secret society of the illuminati.
The obeying of several hints, of secret impulses, argues great wisdom.
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Related Words
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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