Word.ws English Dictionary

covert

/ˈkəʊvɜːt/US/ˈkoʊvɚt/

covert adjective: secret, surreptitious, concealed.

Adjective

covert (comparative more covert, superlative most covert)

  1. (figuratively) Secret, surreptitious, concealed.
    • covert operations
    • how covert matters may be best disclosed1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Antonyms:
    overt
  2. (archaic) Hidden, covered over; overgrown, sheltered.
    • Within that wood there was a covert glade,
      Foreby a narrow foord, to them well knowne […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • to plant a covert alley1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Gardens”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
  3. (historical) Under coverture.
    • feme covert
    • […] a separate use for a woman cannot be created unless she is covert, or unless in immediate contemplation of her marriage.1880, Weekly Notes of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the County Courts of Philadelphia, and the United States District and Circuit Courts for the Eastern District...
    Synonyms:
    covert baron

Noun

covert (plural coverts)

  1. A covering.
  2. A disguise.
  3. A hiding place.
  4. Area of thick undergrowth where animals hide.
  5. A feather that covers the bases of flight feathers.
    • When he felt the trappings being taken off him, so that he was in hunting order, Cully did make some movements as if to rouse. He raised his crest, his shoulder coverts and the soft feathers of his thighs.1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter I, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book I (The Sword in the Stone)

Proper noun capitalized: Covert

Covert (countable and uncountable, plural Coverts)

  1. A surname.
  2. An unincorporated community in Osborne County, Kansas.
  3. A township in Van Buren County, Michigan.
  4. A town and hamlet therein, in Seneca County, New York.

covert meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

covert in Tamil

ஒளிவு மறைவான, மறைவான, மறைவிடம், மறை

covert in Urdu

خفیہ

covert in Bengali

গোপন, ছদ্মবেশী

covert in Malayalam

രഹസ്യമായ
More languagesFewer languages
covert in Sanskrit
परिकर parikara

Examples of covert in a sentence

  • […] in the second case, as long as the woman is covert she cannot anticipate the income, and a mere alienation of her interest is not an attempt to anticipate.1890, Albert Gibson, Robert McLean, Law Notes, page 77:
  • Being advised of the fact that the woman is covert, he stands charged with a knowledge of her disability .1906, Abraham Clark Freeman, The American State Reports: Containing the Cases of General Value and Authority Subsequent to Those Contained...

All 25 example sentences with covert

Synonyms of covert

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of covert

Forms of covert

Adjective
comparativemore covert
superlativemost covert
Noun
pluralcoverts
Proper noun
pluralCoverts

Origin of covert

From Middle English covert, from Old French covert, past participle of covrir (“to cover”) (corresponding to Latin coopertus); cognate to cover. Not closely related to overt, despite what the most common pronunciation would suggest.

Words formed from covert

Phrases with covert

Questions about covert

What does covert mean?
Covert means secret, surreptitious, concealed.
What is covert in Tamil?
Covert in Tamil is ஒளிவு மறைவான, மறைவான, மறைவிடம். See Covert meaning in Tamil.
How do you use covert in a sentence?
[…] in the second case, as long as the woman is covert she cannot anticipate the income, and a mere alienation of her interest is not an attempt to anticipate.
What part of speech is covert?
Covert can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce covert?
Covert is pronounced /ˈkəʊvɜːt/ (UK).

Words near covert in the dictionary

  1. coversluts
  2. coverstock
  3. coverstocks
  4. coverstrip
  5. coverstrips
  6. covert
  7. covert baron
  8. covert channel
  9. covert channels
  10. covert curricula
  11. covert curriculum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: covert (page history and authors); Covert (page history and authors); covert (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); covert (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); covert (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); covert (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); परिकर (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-covert-1.ogg.

Cite this entry: “covert.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/covert. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.