# confidential
## English
### Etymology

From Latin confidentia +‎ -al.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˌkɑːnfɪˈdɛnʃl/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Adjective

confidential (comparative more confidential, superlative most confidential)
* Kept, or meant to be kept, secret within a certain circle of persons; not intended to be known publicly
    Synonyms: private, classified, off the record, privileged, secret, dern (obsolete)
    Antonyms: public, on the record
    The newspaper claims a leaked confidential report by the government admits to problems with corrupt MPs.
** 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch‎, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Book 6, Chapter 61, p. 355:[…] I have a communication of a very private—indeed, I will say, of a sacredly confidential nature, which I desire to make to you.
** 1960, Muriel Spark, chapter 10, in The Bachelors‎, Philadelphia: Lippincott, published 1961, page 163:It would tell against your reputation, losing a confidential document, wouldn’t it? Why didn’t you keep it confidential if it was confidential?
* (dated) Inclined to share confidences; (of things) making people inclined to share confidences; involving the sharing of confidences.
    Sitting in front of the fire, they became quite confidential, and began to gossip.
** 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 310:Long, long would it be ere Miss Crawford’s name passed his lips again, or she could hope for a renewal of such confidential intercourse as had been.
** 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 11, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 60:I was only alive to the condensed confidential comfortableness of sharing a pipe and a blanket with a real friend.
** 1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth‎, New York: Scribner, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 329:She and Bertha had never been on confidential terms, but at such a crisis the barriers of reserve must surely fall:
** 1923, Arnold Bennett, Riceyman Steps‎, London: Cassell, Part 5, Chapter 2, p. 241:Miss Raste was encouraged to be entirely confidential, to withhold nothing even about herself, by the confidence-inspiring and kindly aspect of Elsie’s face.
* (dated) Having someone's confidence or trust; having a position requiring trust; worthy of being trusted with confidences.
    a confidential agent; a confidential servant; a confidential whisper
** 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 168:Now, they want me to send up a confidential person with some writings.
** 1848, Anne Brontë, chapter 18, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall‎, volume 1, London: T.C. Newby, pages 320–321:This paper will serve instead of a confidential friend into whose ear I might pour forth the overflowings of my heart.
** 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book I (Recalled to Life), page 11:[…] perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson’s Bank were principally occupied with the cares of other people;
** 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ...‎, London: Duckworth, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 245:I repeated the instruction by letter and I kept a copy of the letter witnessed by my confidential maid.
** 1959, Kurt Vonnegut, chapter 6, in The Sirens of Titan‎, New York: Dial, published 2006, page 155:“He said he was a confidential messenger,” shouted a man.

#### Derived terms

* confidential informant
* confidentiality
* confidentially
* confidentialness
* nonconfidential
* unconfidential

#### Related terms

* confide
* confidence