Meaning of secret in English

secretThe spies had a secret meeting.
covertThe government was accused of covert military operations.
clandestineHe arranged a clandestine meeting between his client and the candidate.
confidentialAll the information you give us will be treated as strictly confidential.
classifiedThese documents contain classified information.

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[ before noun ]

used to refer to someone who has a particular habit, hobby, or feeling but does not tell or show other people that they do:

a secret drinker

a secret admirer

More examplesFewer examples

A secret buyer is understood to have paid $1 million for the three pictures .
She's got a secret admirer who keeps sending her gifts.
The amazing thing is that it was kept secret for so long.
The man's identity was being kept secret while he was helping police with inquiries.
The trial was kept secret because of the risk of public disorder.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Secrecy and privacy

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Related word

secretly

(Definition of secret from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

secret | Intermediate English

secret

noun [ C ]

/ˈsi·krɪt/

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a piece of information that is not generally known or is not known by someone else and should not be told to others:

We don’t keep secrets from each other.

Don’t tell anyone – it’s a secret.

What’s the secret of your success (= How was it achieved)?

secret

adjective

/ˈsi·krət/

known, done, or kept without others knowing:

secret information

The peace process began with secret talks in Norway.

secrecy

noun [ U ] us

/ˈsi·krə·si/

What’s the reason for all this secrecy?

secretly

adverb us

/ˈsi·krɪt·li/

They secretly took photographs of Jack.

(Definition of secret from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

secret | Business English

secret

adjective

/ˈsiːkrət/ us

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if something is secret, only particular people are allowed to know about it:

secret deal/meeting/talks

Staff were informed to keep the company's plans secret.

a secret document/operation/proposal

Examples of secret

secret

The secret is in the sourdough they add to it!

From New York Daily News

What's their secret for learning, assuming these other factors are in place?

From TIME

Some with grown children who they want to keep this secret from.

From San Francisco Chronicle

There are thousands of female maskers all over the world, but most have kept their secret behind closed doors.

From Huffington Post

The idea of a widely shared but secure secret is over.

From TIME

I want to learn the secret of song.

From Huffington Post

He has made it no secret that he thinks eliminating the tax would be good for the state.

From The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com

Is her secret the only thing that matters about her?

From NPR

You are only as sick as your secrets.

From Huffington Post

It's no secret that wildlife around the world is under severe stress.

From TIME

They do it right before our eyes and never explain the secret of the trick.

From Heritage.org

Drugs were his only chance to keep the secret.

From Huffington Post

I wouldn't see a reason to keep it a secret, especially if we're getting serious.

From CNN

But biological parents are not secrets to be buried, but building blocks to be embraced.

From Huffington Post

Especially when combined in secret ways that the food industry will not share or make public.

From Huffington Post

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with secret

secret

These are words often used in combination with secret.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

dark secret

There is a secret which is kept un-revealed by the people who run finance companies, and so on, a very dark secret.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

guarded secret

As the ending was a closely guarded secret, many details had to be imagined by the playwright.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

secret marriage

Cynthia tells her mother, and several friends, about the secret marriage between the film star and the famous war correspondent.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

See all collocations with secret

What is the pronunciation of secret?

B1,B2,B1

Translations of secret

in Chinese (Traditional)

秘密, 奧秘, 秘訣…

in Chinese (Simplified)

秘密, 奥秘, 秘诀…

in Spanish

secreto, secreto [masculine, singular]…

in Portuguese

segredo, secreto, segredo [masculine]…

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in Italian

गौप्य, गुपित, गुप्त…

秘密の, 内緒の, 秘密…

gizli, mahrem, sır…

secret [masculine], secret/-ète, secret…

secret…

geheim…

ஒரு நபர் அல்லது ஒரு சிலரால் மட்டுமே அறியப்படும் ஒரு தகவல் மற்றும் மற்றவர்களுக்கு சொல்லக்கூடாத ஒன்று, தெரியாத ஒரு விஷயத்தைப் பற்றிய உண்மை, மிகச் சிறப்பாக ஏதாவது செய்யத் தேவையான குறிப்பிட்ட அறிவு மற்றும் திறன்கள்…

गोपनीय बात, राज़, रहस्य…

ખાનગી, રહસ્ય, કોઈ વસ્તુ સારી રીતે કરવા માટે જરૂરી વિશેષ જ્ઞાન અને કૌશલ્ય…

hemmelig, hemmelighed, -hemmelighed…

hemlig, hemlighet…

rahsia…

geheim, das Geheimnis…