Word.ws English Dictionary

open secret

open secret noun: information that is widely known, but not acknowledged openly.

Noun

open secret (plural open secrets)

  1. Information that is widely known, but not acknowledged openly.
    • At that time, the corruption in the mayor's office was an open secret.
    • It was an open secret in the profession at that time that Mr. Field had very explicit documentary evidence that would have made Mr. Evarts very uncomfortable had the Bar Association thrown down the gauntlet.1894, Alvan S. Southworth, "A Generation of the New York Bar", in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (later The American Magazine), Volume XXXVII, page 427
  2. (dated) Information that is not widely known, despite being freely available.
    • The wonderful dining options in this city are hidden gems — an open secret.

open secret meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Indonesian

open secret in Tamil

ஊரறிந்த ரகசியம், பலரறிந்த இரகசியம்

open secret in Kannada

ಬಹಿರಂಗ ರಹಸ್ಯ, ರಹಸ್ಯವಲ್ಲದ್ದು, ಸರ್ವವಿದಿತ

open secret in Indonesian

widely known fact not mentioned
rahasia umum

Examples of open secret in a sentence

  • It is now an open secret that Gulf states have developed ties with Israel, in the absence of formal relations, including trade partnerships and security deals.2018 November 3, Hassan Hassan, “The Arab Winter Is Coming”, in The Atlantic:
  • The relationship between [Laurent] Freixe and his subordinate was an “open secret” in the company's management, current and former Nestlé executives tell the FT.2025 September 20, Madeleine Speed, Mercedes Ruehl, “The meltdown at Nestlé”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN...

Synonyms of open secret

Forms of open secret

pluralopen secrets

Questions about open secret

What does open secret mean?
Open secret means information that is widely known, but not acknowledged openly.
What is open secret in Tamil?
Open secret in Tamil is ஊரறிந்த ரகசியம், பலரறிந்த இரகசியம். See Open secret meaning in Tamil.
How do you use open secret in a sentence?
It is now an open secret that Gulf states have developed ties with Israel, in the absence of formal relations, including trade partnerships and security deals.
What part of speech is open secret?
Open secret is a noun.
What is the plural of open secret?
The plural of open secret is open secrets.

Words near open secret in the dictionary

  1. open sea
  2. open seas
  3. open season
  4. open seasons
  5. open seating
  6. open secret
  7. open secrets
  8. open sesame
  9. open sesames
  10. open set
  11. open sets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: open secret (page history and authors); open secret (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); open secret (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: “open secret.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/open_secret. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.