1 ~ (from sb) known about by only a few people; kept hidden from others:
secret information / meetings / talks * He tried to keep it secret from his family. * Details of the proposals remain secret. * a secret passage leading to the beach
seealsoTOPSECRET
2 [onlybeforenoun] used to describe actions and behaviour that you do not tell other people about:
He's a secret drinker. * I didn't know you were a secret football fan. * her secret hopes / fears * a secret room
3 [notusuallybeforenoun] ~ (about sth) (of a person or their behaviour) liking to have secrets that other people do not know about; showing this
SYNSECRETIVE:
They were so secret about everything. * Jessica caught a secret smile flitting between the two of them.
secretly adverb:
The police had secretly filmed the conversations. * She was secretly pleased to see him.
Part of speech: noun
1 [C] something that is known about by only a few people and not told to others:
Can you keep a secret? * The location of the ship is a closely-guarded secret. * Shall we let him in on (= tell him) the secret? * He made no secret of his ambition (= he didn't try to hide it). * She was dismissed for revealing trade secrets. * official / State secrets * dark secrets from his past
2 (usually the secret) [sing.] the best or only way to achieve sth; the way a particular person achieves sth:
Careful planning is the secret of success. * She still looks so young. What's her secret?
3 [C,usually pl.] a thing that is not yet fully understood or that is difficult to understand:
the secrets of life / the universe
IDIOMS
in secret without other people knowing about it:
The meeting was held in secret. * She admired him, in secret of course.
moreatOPENadj.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for secret is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is secret a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, secret is tagged as adjective.
Does secret appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — secret appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
