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secret

Overview

This page has 21 definitions of secret with English translations in 5 languages. Secret is a noun, an adjective and verb. Examples of how to use secret in a sentence are shown. Also define these 21 related words and terms: knowledge, hidden, intend, science fiction, key, principle, knack, private, seclusion, genital, organ, steel, skullcap, Christianity, prayer, Mass, celebrant, hide, secretly, secrecy, and secret.

English

Etymology

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,[1] from Proto-Indo-European *krey-.[2][3] Displaced native Old English dēagol (“secret”) and dēagolnes (“a secret”).

Pronunciation

Noun

secret (countable and uncountable, plural secrets)

  1. (countable) A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
    "Can you keep a secret?" "Yes." "So can I."
    • May 1 , 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 13
      To tell our own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery
    • 1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 277973588, page 216:
      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.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, OCLC 246633669, PC, scene: Citadel:
      Barla Von: Most people think I deal in finances, but my real currency is knowledge. I trade information and it has made me very wealthy.
      Barla Von: But the Shadow Broker is the true master. Every day, he buys and sells secrets that could topple governments, always giving them to the highest bidder.
    • 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
      Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
    • 2014, Thomas Feller, Trustworthy Reconfigurable Systems:
      The storage of cryptographic secrets is one of the paramount requirements in building trustworthy systems.
    • Knowledge definition
      The fact of knowing about something; general understanding or familiarity with a subject, place, situation etc. (1 of 12 knowledge definitions)
    • Intend definition
      To fix the mind upon (something, or something to be accomplished); be intent upon (1 of 9 intend definitions)
  2. The key or principle by which something is made clear; the knack.
    The secret to a long-lasting marriage is compromise.
  3. Something not understood or known.
  4. (uncountable) Private seclusion.
    The work was done in secret, so that nobody could object.
    • Private definition
      Belonging to, concerning, or accessible only to an individual person or a specific group. (1 of 9 private definitions)
  5. (archaic, in the plural) The genital organs.
  6. (historical) A form of steel skullcap.
  7. (Christianity, often in the plural) Any prayer spoken inaudibly and not aloud; especially, one of the prayers in the Mass, immediately following the "orate, fratres", said inaudibly by the celebrant.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Terms derived from secret (noun)

Descendants

  • Pitcairn-Norfolk: siikret
  • → Cebuano: sekret

Translations

Adjective

secret (comparative more secret, superlative most secret)

  1. Being or kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
    We went down a secret passage.
  2. (obsolete) Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
  3. (obsolete) Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive, separate, apart.
  4. (obsolete) Separate; distinct.
    • 1678, Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe
      They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.

Alternative forms

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

secret (adjective)

Related terms

Translations

Verb

secret (third-person singular simple present secrets, present participle (UK) secretting or (US) secreting, simple past and past participle (UK) secretted or (US) secreted)

  1. (transitive) To make or keep secret. [from late 16th c.]
    • 1984, Peter Scott Lawrence, Around the mulberry tree, Firefly Books, p. 26
      [...] 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.
    • 1986, InfoWorld, InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
      Diskless workstations [...] make it difficult for individuals to copy information [...] onto a diskette and secret it away.
    • 1994, Phyllis Granoff & Koichi Shinohara, Monks and magicians: religious biographies in Asia, Mosaic Press, p. 50
      To prevent the elixir from reaching mankind and thereby upsetting the balance of the universe, two gods secret it away.
  2. (transitive) To hide secretly.
    He was so scared for his safety he secreted arms around the house.

Usage notes

  • All other dictionaries label this sense 'obsolete', but the citations above and on the citations page demonstrate recent usage as part of the idiom "secret [something] away".
  • The present participle and past forms secreting and secreted are liable to confusion with the corresponding heteronymous forms of the similar verb secrete.

Quotations

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ George William Lemon. English etymology
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin secretus.

Pronunciation

Adjective

secret (feminine secreta, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)

  1. secret

Derived terms

Noun

secret m (plural secrets)

  1. secret

Derived terms

Further reading

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sə.kʁɛ/, (dated) /sə.ɡʁɛ/
  • audio(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle French secret, from Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secrētus.

Adjective

secret (feminine secrète, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secrètes)

  1. secret
Derived terms
 

Etymology 2

From Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secrētum.

Noun

secret m (plural secrets)

  1. secret
  2. secrecy
Derived terms
 
Descendants

Anagrams

Further reading

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French secret.

Adjective

secret m (feminine singular secrete, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)

  1. secret

Descendants

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French secret, Latin secretum, secretus. Doublet of săcret.

Pronunciation

Noun

secret n (plural secrete)

  1. secret

Declension

Declension of secret
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) secret secretul (niște) secrete secretele
genitive/dative (unui) secret secretului (unor) secrete secretelor
vocative secretule secretelor

Synonyms

Adjective

secret m or n (feminine singular secretă, masculine plural secreți, feminine and neuter plural secrete)

  1. secret, hidden

Declension

Declension of secret
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite secret secretă secreți secrete
definite secretul secreta secreții secretele
genitive/
dative 		indefinite secret secrete secreți secrete
definite secretului secretei secreților secretelor

Synonyms

Related terms

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