Word.ws English Dictionary

on the low

on the low is the alternative form of on the down-low.

Meaning of on the down-low

Prepositional phrase

  1. (US, euphemistic, idiomatic, slang) In secret or nearly so, on a need-to-know basis.
    • I'll tell you, but keep it on the down-low.
  2. (US, euphemistic, idiomatic, slang) Secretly sleeping with someone other than one's partner.
    • And keep it on the down low
      Nobody has to know1995 December 11, “Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)”performed by R. Kelly
  3. (African-American Vernacular) Of a man, publicly identifying as heterosexual but secretly having sex with men.

Questions about on the low

What is on the low the alternative form of?
On the low is the alternative form of on the down-low.

Words near on the low in the dictionary

  1. on the level
  2. on the line
  3. on the lines of
  4. on the lookout
  5. on the loose
  6. on the low
  7. on the make
  8. on the march
  9. on the mark
  10. on the market
  11. on the mat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the low (page history and authors); on the down-low (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.

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