secret
pronunciation
How to pronounce secret in British English:
UK [ˈsiːkrət]
How to pronounce secret in American English:
US [ˈsiːkrət]
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- Noun:
- something that should remain hidden from others (especially information that is not to be passed on)
- information known only to a special group
- something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
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- Adjective:
- not open or public; kept private or not revealed
- conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
- not openly made known
- communicated covertly
- not expressed
- designed to elude detection
- hidden from general view or use
- (of information) given in confidence or in secret
- indulging only covertly
- having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding
- the next to highest level of official classification for documents
Word Origin
- secret
- secret: [14] Etymologically, something that is secret is ‘separated’ from others, hence put out of the way, hidden. The word comes via Old French secret from Latin sēcrētus, an adjectival use of the past participle of sēcernere ‘separate’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix sē- ‘apart’ and cernere ‘separate’ (source also of English certain, discern, excrement, etc).From the 16th to the 18th centuries, secret was used as a verb, meaning ‘hide’, but it was then altered to secrete, on the model of Latin sēcrētus. (The other verb secrete, ‘produce fluids or other substances’ [18], is a back-formation from secretion [17], which goes back to Latin sēcrētiō ‘separation’, a derivative of sēcernere.) A secretary is etymologically a ‘secret’ or confidential helper.=> certain, decree, discern, excrement, secretary
- secret (v.)
- "to keep secret" (described in OED as "obsolete"), 1590s, from secret (n.). Related: Secreted; secreting.
- secret (n.)
- late 14c., from Latin secretus "set apart, withdrawn; hidden, concealed, private," past participle of secernere "to set apart, part, divide; exclude," from se- "without, apart," properly "on one's own" (see se-) + cernere "separate" (see crisis). As an adjective from late 14c., from French secret, adjective use of noun. Open secret is from 1828. Secret agent first recorded 1715; secret service is from 1737; secret weapon is from 1936.
Synonym
Example
- 1. The recipe is no secret .
- 2. She told everybody my secret .
- 3. One secret is to specialise .
- 4. He found a secret way .
- 5. What was the secret to success ?