privately

adverb

Simple meaning

Kept private or confined to those intimately concerned.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pryvuhtlee

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɹaɪvətli

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adverb

By a private person or interest
Kept private or confined to those intimately concerned
“It was discussed privately between the two men.”
In a private manner.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

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More ways to use privately

“It was discussed privately between the two men.”adverb

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

privately heldprivately ownedprivately publishedprivately fundedprivately run

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

privateadjectiveBase word
Confined to particular persons or groups or providing privacy.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

privateernounPerson or profession
An officer or crew member of a privateer.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

privately held corporationnounCompound term
A corporation owned by a few people.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

private schoolnounRelated term
A school established and controlled privately and supported by endowment and tuition.
private security forcenounRelated term
A privately employed group hired to protect the security of a business or industry.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.