secret
Syllables: se·cret/ˈsiː.kɹɪt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
obsolete/ˈsiː.kɹɛt/
secret noun: a piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.
Noun
secret (countable and uncountable, plural secrets)
- A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.
- "Can you keep a secret?" "Yes." "So can I."
- To tell our own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treacheryMay 1, 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 13
- The key or principle by which something is made clear; the knack.
- The secret to a long-lasting marriage is compromise.
- Something not understood or known.
- Thou knewſt by name, and all th' ethereal powers, / All ſecrets of the deep, all Natures works,1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Private seclusion.
- The work was done in secret, so that nobody could object.
- The genital organs.
- A form of steel skullcap.
- Any prayer spoken inaudibly and not aloud; especially, one of the prayers in the Tridentine Mass, immediately following the "orate, fratres", said inaudibly by the celebrant.
Verb
secret (third-person singular simple present secrets, present participle (US) secreting or (UK) secretting, simple past and past participle (US) secreted or (UK) secretted)
- To make or keep secret.
- … she would unfold the silk, press it with a smooth wooden block that she'd heated in the oven, and then once more secret it away.1984, Peter Scott Lawrence, Around the mulberry tree, Firefly Books, p. 26
- Diskless workstations … make it difficult for individuals to copy information … onto a diskette and secret it away.1986, InfoWorld, InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
- To hide secretly.
Adjective
secret (comparative more secret, superlative most secret)
- Being or kept hidden.
- We went down a secret passage.
- The ſecret things belong unto the Lord our God; but thoſe things which are reuealed belong unto us, and to our children for euer, that wee may doe all the words of this Law.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 29:29
- Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
- Sing Heav'nly Muſe, that on the secret top / Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didſt inſpire / That Shepherd, who firſt taught the choſen Seed, / In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth / Roſe out of Chaos: [...]1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- secret in her sapphire cell1716, Elijah Fenton, an ode to the Right Honourable John Lord Gower
- Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive, separate, apart.
- What neede we any ſpurre, but our owne cauſe / To pricke vs to redreſſe? What other Bond / Than ſecret Romans, that haue ſpoke the Word, / And will not palter?1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Separate; distinct.
- They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.1678, Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe
secret meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
secret in Hindi
- knowledge that is hidden
- रहस्य rahasya, राज़ rāz, राज rāj, सेर ser
- being or kept hidden
- गुप्त gupt, रहस्यमय rahasyamay, छुपा chupā, पिनहाँ pinhā̃
secret in Tamil
- knowledge that is hidden
- ரகசியம் rakaciyam
secret in Marathi
- knowledge that is hidden
- गुपित gupit
- being or kept hidden
- गुप्त gupta
secret in Urdu
- knowledge that is hidden
- راز rāz, سِر sir, سِرّ sirr
More languagesFewer languages
- secret in Bengali
- রহস্য rohosśo, গোপন gōpon
- secret in Telugu
- రహస్యం rahasyaṁ, రహస్య rahasya
- secret in Malayalam
- രഹസ്യമായ rahasyamāya
- secret in Kannada
- ರಹಸ್ಯ rahasya, ಗೂಢ gūḍha, ಗುಟ್ಟು guṭṭu, ಅಡಿ aḍi
- secret in Punjabi
- ਰਾਜ਼ rāz, گھنڈ ghunḍ, ਘੁੰਡ ghuṇḍ, ਭੇਤ bhet
- secret in Gujarati
- ભેવ bhev, રાજ rāj, બાતમી bātmī, વાત vāt
- secret in Odia
- କଥା kathā
- secret in Sanskrit
- गुप्त gupta, रहस्य rahasya
- secret in Assamese
- গুপ্ত gupto, গোপন güpon
- secret in Nepali
- गोप्य, सिक्रेट, गुप्तिकरण
- secret in Pashto
- راز rāz, سر ser, نوز nawz
- secret in Tagalog
- sikreto, lihim, tago, lingid
- secret in Arabic
- سِرّ sirr, خَفِيَّة ḵafiyya, سِرِّيّ sirriyy
- secret in Malay
- rahsia, sir
- secret in Indonesian
- rahasia, sir
- secret in Persian
- نهانی nehâni, پنهانی penhâni, مخفی maxfi
- secret in Thai
- ความลับ kwaam-láp, ลับ láp
- secret in Vietnamese
- bí mật, điều bí mật
- secret in Myanmar
- အတွင်းစကား a.twang:ca.ka:
- Kashmiri
- سِر sir, راز rāz
Examples of secret in a sentence
- Well, mistress, I am sorry this is a matter I cannot aid you in—it goes against my conscience, and it is an affair above my condition, and beyond my management;—but I will keep your secret.1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume I (in English), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.]...
- Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined.2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
- The storage of cryptographic secrets is one of the paramount requirements in building trustworthy systems.2014, Thomas Feller, Trustworthy Reconfigurable Systems:
- To prevent the elixir from reaching mankind and thereby upsetting the balance of the universe, two gods secret it away.1994, Phyllis Granoff & Koichi Shinohara, Monks and magicians: religious biographies in Asia, Mosaic Press, p. 50
Synonyms of secret
Antonyms
Forms of secret
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | secrets |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | secrets |
| present participle US | secreting |
| present participle UK | secretting |
| past participle US | secreted |
| past US | secreted |
| past participle UK | secretted |
| past UK | secretted |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more secret |
| superlative | most secret |
| alternative form (obsolete) | secrette |
| alternative form (obsolete) | secrete |
| alternative form (obsolete) | secreat |
Origin of secret
The noun is from Middle English secret, from Latin sēcrētum. Doublet of secretum. Displaced Old English dēagolnes (“a secret”). The verb is from the noun.
From Middle English secrette, from Old French secret, from Latin sēcrētus (“separated, hidden”), from ptp of sēcernō (“separate, to set aside, sunder out”), from cernō, from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Displaced Old English dēagol (“secret”).
Words formed from secret
- best-kept secret
- in secret
- make no secret of
- nonsecret
- open secret
- pseudosecret
- secretist
- secretmonger
- secret of Polichinelle
- secret sharing
- secret squirrel
- state secret
- subsecret
- supersecret
- top secret
- trade secret
- Victoria's Secret
- worst-kept secret
- secrete
- secret admirer
- secret agent
- secret agentry
- secret ballot
- secret chancellor
- secret code
- secret government
- secret handshake
- secret history
- secret ink
- secretive
- secret key
- secretly
- secret menu
- secretness
- secret partner
- secret police
- secret recipe
- secret-sacred
- secret Santa
- secret sauce
- secret service
- secret shopper
- secret society
- secret sock
- secret vice
- secret weapon
- secret writing
- semisecretsupersecret
- top-secret
- ultrasecret
- unsecret
Phrases with secret
Questions about secret
- What does secret mean?
- Secret means a piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.
- What is secret in Hindi?
- Secret in Hindi is रहस्य (rahasya), राज़ (rāz), राज (rāj). See Secret meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use secret in a sentence?
- Well, mistress, I am sorry this is a matter I cannot aid you in—it goes against my conscience, and it is an affair above my condition, and beyond my management;—but I will keep your secret.
- What part of speech is secret?
- Secret can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce secret?
- Secret is pronounced /ˈsiː.kɹɪt/.
- What is the plural of secret?
- The plural of secret is secrets.
Words near secret in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: secret (page history and authors); ಅಡಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); گھنڈ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); છાનું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); କଥା (Odia) (page history and authors); গুপ্ত (Assamese) (page history and authors); secret (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-secret.wav.
Cite this entry: “secret.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/secret. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.