Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use secretive in a sentence

17 example sentences · adjective

Secretive means having an inclination to secrecy. Example: “She's a secretive girl, not giving away much about her life.”

Examples of secretive by meaning

adjectiveHaving an inclination to secrecy.

  • She's a secretive girl, not giving away much about her life.
  • Why are you acting all secretive? What are you hiding?
  • Genial lorry drivers, munching wurst high in their cabs, looking down on their secretive toing and froing with interest.1987, Christina Hardyment, “Picking up Gold and Silver”, in Heidi’s Alp: One Family’s Search for Storybook Europe, Book Club edition, New...

More sentences with secretive

  • The secretive residents of the massive city-ship tended to stay inside.From the entry inside
  • The reporter drew heavily on interviews with former members of the secretive group.From the entry draw on
  • There has been the secretive Portuguese investigation, apparently marred by infighting between police organisations.2007 May 11, Mick Hume, “Portugal: let’s all make it worse”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05…. From the entry paedophile-phobia
  • Spies prowled Japan from the seventh century, but the secretive ninja left few written records.2000 October 15, Denver Post, page 10. From the entry ninja
  • When we were sleeping together, we knew we had to be secretive.1983 April 30, Peg Cruikshank, Rosemary Curb, “Cloister Closets: Breaking Silence”, in Gay Community News, page 8. From the entry subprioress
  • You don't need to be so secretive."2018 February 24, Mel Bossa, Split, JMS Books LLC, →ISBN. From the entry der
  • The identity of the secretive street artist has been outed by a Sunday newspaper and, shock horror, he's middle class.2008 July 14, Francesca Gavin, The Guardian. From the entry shock horror
  • But after more than two decades in the FBI's secretive national-security division, she knows her way around terrorism.1998 August 24, Johanna McGeary et al., “Sifting For Answers”, in Time. From the entry know one's way around
  • I'm not a secretive, hoardy kind of person.1997, Country Life - Volume 191, Issues 40-44, page 65. From the entry hoardy
  • There’s a common paranoia among the crypto-wealthy that they’ll be targeted and robbed since there’s no bank securing the money, so many are obsessively secretive.2018 January 13, Nellie Bowles, “Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not”, in The New York Times. From the entry cryptowealthy
  • The adults were still being all shushy and secretive, so José read his books, Anna scribbled in her notebook, and Henry started a new game.2014, Kate Messner, Manhunt. From the entry shushy
  • Unlike Weasleycest, which has spread across the fandom like kudzu, Malfoycest has always been more difficult to find, and its writers a bit more secretive.2007, Catherine Tosenberger, "Potterotics: Harry Potter Fanfiction On The Internet", dissertation submitted to the University of Florida…. From the entry Weasleycest
  • Smaller than the wambengers, the antechinuses are secretive and are seldom seen by people unless they are caught and brought into houses by domestic cats.1970, W. D. L. Ride, Ella Fry, A Guide to the Native Mammals of Australia, page 116. From the entry antechinus
  • When he looks at her she wears a secretive smile, the knowledge of their act between them like a thauma'd thing, laced with the unguilt of defiant exploration.2015, Micah Blacklight, Chapter Twenty-One: Songhai. From the entry unguilt

Meaning of secretive

  1. adjective Having an inclination to secrecy.
  2. adjective Relating to secretion.

Full definition of secretive

Questions about secretive in a sentence

How do you use secretive in a sentence?
Secretive is used as an adjective. For example: “She's a secretive girl, not giving away much about her life.”
What is a short sentence with secretive?
“You don't need to be so secretive."”
What does secretive mean?
Secretive means having an inclination to secrecy.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: secretive (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use secretive in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/secretive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.