secret

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

seekruht

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsikɹət

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.

noun

countable
A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.
Something not understood or known.
The key or principle by which something is made clear; the knack.
uncountable
Private seclusion.

adjective

Being or kept hidden.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.

Used this way, secret is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use secret

“The combination to the safe was a secret.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Information

secret servicesecret society

Other combinations

secret policetrade secrettop secretsecret ballotsecret agentsecret history

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

secretarynounDerived noun
A person who is head of an administrative department of government.
secretlyadverbDerived adverb
In secrecy.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

secret agentnounCompound term
A person secretly employed in espionage for a government.
secret approvalnounCompound term
Tacit approval of someone's wrongdoing.
secret ballotnounCompound term
A vote in which each person's choice is secret but the totaled votes are public.
secret codenounCompound term
A secret method of writing.
secret intelligence servicenounCompound term
The government agency in the United Kingdom that is responsible for internal security and counterintelligence overseas.
secret plannounCompound term
A secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal).

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

secretory phasenounRelated term
The second half of the menstrual cycle after ovulation.
lachrymal secretionnounRelated term
Saline fluid secreted by lacrimal glands.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: being or kept hidden

inwardArchaic

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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.