# secret
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsiːkɹɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (weak vowel merger) IPA: /ˈsiːkɹət/
* (obsolete) IPA: /ˈsiːkɹɛt/
* Hyphenation: se‧cret
* Rhymes: -iːkɹɪt, -iːkɹət, -iːkɹɛt

### Etymology 1

The noun is from Middle English secret, from Latin sēcrētum. Doublet of secretum. Displaced Old English dēagolnes (“a secret”).
The verb is from the noun.

#### Noun

secret (countable and uncountable, plural secrets)
* (countable) A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
    "Can you keep a secret?" "Yes." "So can I."
** May 1 , 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 13
    To tell our own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery
** 1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 216:Well, mistress, I am sorry this is a matter I cannot aid you in—it goes against my conscience, and it is an affair above my condition, and beyond my management;—but I will keep your secret.
** 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:Barla Von: Most people think I deal in finances, but my real currency is knowledge. I trade information and it has made me very wealthy. Barla Von: But the Shadow Broker is the true master. Every day, he buys and sells secrets that could topple governments, always giving them to the highest bidder.
** 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
** 2014, Thomas Feller, Trustworthy Reconfigurable Systems:The storage of cryptographic secrets is one of the paramount requirements in building trustworthy systems.
* The key or principle by which something is made clear; the knack.
    The secret to a long-lasting marriage is compromise.
* Something not understood or known.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1468–1469:Thou knewſt by name, and all th' ethereal powers, / All ſecrets of the deep, all Natures works,
* (uncountable) Private seclusion.
    The work was done in secret, so that nobody could object.
* (archaic, in the plural) The genital organs.
* (historical) A form of steel skullcap.
* (Christianity, often in the plural) Any prayer spoken inaudibly and not aloud; especially, one of the prayers in the Tridentine Mass, immediately following the "orate, fratres", said inaudibly by the celebrant.

##### Synonyms

* dern

##### Derived terms

* best-kept secret
* in secret
* make no secret of
* open secret
* secretist
* secret of Polichinelle
* secret sharing
* secret squirrel
* state secret (State secret)
* top secret
* trade secret
* Victoria's Secret
* worst-kept secret

##### Descendants

* Pitcairn-Norfolk: siikret

##### Translations

Afrikaans: geheim (af)
Albanian: sekret (sq) m
American Sign Language: A@Mouth-ThumbBack Contact
Amharic: ምስጢር (məsṭir)
Arabic: سِرّ (ar) m (sirr), خَفِيَّة f (ḵafiyya)
Armenian: գաղտնիք (hy) (gaġtnikʻ)
Asturian: secretu m
Azerbaijani: sirr (az)
Bashkir: сер (ser)
Basque: sekretu
Belarusian: таямні́ца f (tajamníca), та́йна f (tájna), сакрэ́т m (sakrét)
Bengali: রহস্য (bn) (rohosśo)
Breton: kevrin (br) m
Bulgarian: та́йна (bg) f (tájna), секре́т (bg) m (sekrét)
Burmese: အတွင်းစကား (my) (a.twang:ca.ka:)
Catalan: secret (ca) m
Chechen: къайле (qʼajle)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 秘密 (bei$^3$ mat$^6$)
Dungan: бими (bimi)
Hokkien: 秘密 (pì-bi̍t)
Mandarin: 秘密 (zh) (mìmì)
Crimean Tatar: sır
Czech: tajemství (cs) n
Danish: hemmelighed (da) c
Dutch: geheim (nl) n, geheimenis (nl) f
Egyptian: (štꜣw m)
Esperanto: sekreto (eo)
Estonian: saladus
Finnish: salaisuus (fi), sala (fi), salatieto
French: secret (fr) m
Middle French: secret m
Old French: secret m
Friulian: segret m, secret m
Galician: segredo m
Georgian: საიდუმლო (saidumlo)
German: Geheimnis (de) n
Gothic: 𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌰 f (runa)
Greek: μυστικό (el) n (mystikó)
Greenlandic: isertugaq
Hebrew: סוֹד (he) m (sod)
Hiligaynon: likum
Hindi: रहस्य (hi) m (rahasya), राज़ m (rāz), राज (hi) m (rāj), सेर (hi) m (ser), सीकरेट m (sīkreṭ)
Hungarian: titok (hu)
Icelandic: leyndarmál (is) n
Ido: sekreto (io)
Indonesian: rahasia (id), sir (id)
Ingush: къайле (qʼajle)
Interlingua: secreto
Irish: rún (ga) m, scéal rúin m
Old Irish: rún f
Italian: segreto (it) m
Japanese: 秘密 (ja) (ひみつ, himitsu)
Kabardian: щэху (kbd) (śɛxʷu)
Kalmyk: нууц (nuuts)
Kashmiri: سِر (sir), راز (rāz)
Kazakh: құпия (qūpiä), сыр (kk) (syr)
Khakas: чазыт (çazıt)
Khmer: ការសម្ងាត់ (kaa sɑmngat)
Korean: 비밀(祕密) (ko) (bimil)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: raz (ku) f, nehînî (ku) f, surr (ku) f
Kyrgyz: сыр (ky) (sır)
Lao: ຄວາມລັບ (khuām lap)
Latgalian: paslāpums m
Latin: opertum n, sēcrētum n, arcānum n, mystērium n, abscōnsum n (medieval)
Latvian: noslēpums m
Lithuanian: paslaptis f
Luxembourgish: Geheimnis n, Geheechnes n
Macedonian: тајна f (tajna)
Malay: rahsia (ms), sir
Maltese: sigriet m
Manx: folliaght m
Maore Comorian: siri class 9/10
Maori: muna
Marathi: गुपित n (gupit)
Mingrelian: სალამუსო (salamuso)
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: нууц (mn) (nuuc)
Mongolian: ᠨᠢᠭᠤᠴᠠ (niɣuča)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: hemmelighet (no) m or f, løyndom m
Nynorsk: løyndom m, hemmelegheit f
Old East Slavic: таина f (taina)
Old English: dēagolnes f
Old Norse: rún f, leynd f
Oromo: iccitii
Ottoman Turkish: سر (sır)
Pashto: راز (ps) m (rāz), سر (ps) m (ser), نوز m (nawz)
Persian: راز (fa) (râz), سر (fa) (serr), سکرت (fa) (sekret)
Pitcairn-Norfolk: siikret
Plautdietsch: Jeheemniss n
Polish: sekret (pl) m inan, tajemnica (pl) f
Portuguese: segredo (pt) m
Romanian: secret (ro) n, taină (ro) f
Russian: та́йна (ru) f (tájna), секре́т (ru) m (sekrét)
Sami:
Kildin Sami: пя̄ҋҋт (peaj̥j̥t)
Scottish Gaelic: rùn m, cagar m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: та̑јна f
Roman: tȃjna (sh) f
Sicilian: sicritu m, sigretu (scn) m (italianization)
Slovak: tajomstvo n
Slovene: skrivnost (sl) f
Spanish: secreto (es) m, arcano (es)
Swahili: siri (sw)
Swedish: hemlighet (sv) c
Tagalog: sikreto, lihim
Tajik: роз (roz‍), сир (tg) (sir)
Tamil: ரகசியம் (ta) (rakaciyam)
Tatar: сер (tt) (ser)
Telugu: రహస్యం (te) (rahasyaṁ)
Thai: ความลับ (th) (kwaam-láp)
Tibetan: གསང་བ (gsang ba)
Turkish: sır (tr), giz (tr)
Turkmen: syr
Tuvan: чажыт (çajıt)
Ukrainian: тає́мниця (uk) f (tajémnycja), секре́т m (sekrét), таїна́ f (tajiná) (poetic or colloquial)
Urdu: راز m (rāz)
Uyghur: سىر (sir)
Uzbek: sir (uz)
Venetan: secreto m
Vietnamese: bí mật (vi) (祕密), điều bí mật (vi) (條祕密)
Volapük: klän (vo)
Walloon: sicret (wa) m
Welsh: cyfrinach (cy)
Wutunhua: sangwa
Yakut: кистэлэҥ (kisteleñ)
Yiddish: סוד m (sod), סאָד m (sod)
Zhuang: mimiz :

#### Verb

secret (third-person singular simple present secrets, present participle (UK) secretting or (US) secreting, simple past and past participle (UK) secretted or (US) secreted)
* (transitive) To make or keep secret. [from late 16th c.]
** 1984, Peter Scott Lawrence, Around the mulberry tree, Firefly Books, p. 26
    [...] she would unfold the silk, press it with a smooth wooden block that she'd heated in the oven, and then once more secret it away.
** 1986, InfoWorld, InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
    Diskless workstations [...] make it difficult for individuals to copy information [...] onto a diskette and secret it away.
** 1994, Phyllis Granoff & Koichi Shinohara, Monks and magicians: religious biographies in Asia, Mosaic Press, p. 50
    To prevent the elixir from reaching mankind and thereby upsetting the balance of the universe, two gods secret it away.
* (transitive) To hide secretly.
    He was so scared for his safety he secreted arms around the house.

##### Usage notes

* All other dictionaries label this sense 'obsolete', but the citations above and on the citations page demonstrate recent usage as part of the idiom "secret [something] away".
* The present participle and past forms secreting and secreted are liable to confusion with the corresponding heteronymous forms of the similar verb secrete.

##### Quotations

* For more quotations using this term, see Citations:secret.

##### Derived terms

* secrete

##### References

* “†ˈsecret, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989] Tagged as obsolete. Notes: “In the inflected forms it is not easy to distinguish between ˈsecret and secrete v.”
* “Se"cret (?), v. t.” listed on page 1,301 of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Se"cret (?), v. t. To keep secret. [Obs.] Bacon.

### Etymology 2

From Middle English secrette, from Old French secret, from Latin sēcrētus (“separated, hidden”), from ptp of sēcernō (“separate, to set aside, sunder out”), from cernō, from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Displaced Old English dēagol (“secret”).

#### Adjective

secret (comparative more secret, superlative most secret)
* Being or kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
    We went down a secret passage.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 29:29:The ſecret things belong unto the Lord our God; but thoſe things which are reuealed belong unto us, and to our children for euer, that wee may doe all the words of this Law.
** 1963, Margery Allingham, “The Elopers”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 25:The original family who had begun to build a palace to outrival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.
* (obsolete) Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 6–10:Sing Heav'nly Muſe, that on the secret top / Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didſt inſpire / That Shepherd, who firſt taught the choſen Seed, / In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth / Roſe out of Chaos: [...]
** 1716, Elijah Fenton, an ode to the Right Honourable John Lord Gower:secret in her sapphire cell
** 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “I Make Acquaintance of My Uncle”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 19:"He was a secret man, Alexander—a secret, silent man," he continued.
* (obsolete) Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive, separate, apart.
** 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 115, column 1:What neede we any ſpurre, but our owne cauſe / To pricke vs to redreſſe? What other Bond / Than ſecret Romans, that haue ſpoke the Word, / And will not palter?
* (obsolete) Separate; distinct.
** 1678, Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe:They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.

##### Alternative forms

* secrette, secrete, secreat (obsolete)

##### Synonyms

* see Thesaurus:hidden and Thesaurus:covert

##### Antonyms

* overt

##### Derived terms

* secret admirer
* secret agent, secret agentry
* secret ballot
* secret chancellor
* secret code
* secret government
* secret handshake
* secret history
* secretive
* secretly
* secret menu
* secretness
* secret partner
* secret police
* secret recipe
* secret-sacred (secret/sacred)
* secret Santa
* secret sauce
* secret service
* secret sharing
* secret shopper
* secret society
* secret sock
* secret squirrel
* secret writing
* state secret (State secret)
* top-secret
* unsecret

##### Related terms

* secrete
* secretion

##### Translations

Afrikaans: geheime
American Sign Language: A@Mouth-ThumbBack Contact
Arabic: سِرِّيّ (sirriyy)
Armenian: գաղտնի (hy) (gaġtni), թաքուն (hy) (tʻakʻun)
Asturian: secretu
Azerbaijani: sirli (az), gizli (az), məxfi (az), gizlin
Bashkir: йәшерен (yəşeren)
Basque: sekretu
Belarusian: тае́мны (tajémny), патае́мны (patajémny), та́йны (be) (tájny), сакрэ́тны (sakrétny)
Bengali: গোপন (bn) (gōpon)
Breton: kevrin (br), kevrinus (br), kevrinek (br)
Bulgarian: та́ен (bg) (táen), секре́тен (bg) (sekréten)
Catalan: secret (ca) m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 秘密的 (mìmì de)
Czech: tajný (cs)
Danish: hemmelig (da)
Dutch: geheim (nl)
Egyptian: (jmn)
Esperanto: kripta, sekreta
Finnish: salainen (fi), salattu (fi), sala-, piilotettu (fi), piilo- (fi)
French: secret (fr) m
Friulian: segret, secret
Galician: secreto (gl)
Georgian: საიდუმლო (saidumlo)
German: geheim (de)
Gothic: 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌲𐌽𐍃 (analaugns)
Greek: μυστικός (el) m (mystikós)
Ancient: λαθραῖος (lathraîos)
Hebrew: סודי (sodi)
Hiligaynon: likum
Hindi: गुप्त (hi) (gupt), रहस्यमय (rahasyamay), छुपा (chupā), पिनहाँ (hi) (pinhā̃)
Hungarian: titkos (hu)
Icelandic: leynilegur (is)
Ido: sekreta (io)
Indonesian: rahasia (id)
Interlingua: secrete
Irish: rúnda
Italian: segreto (it)
Japanese: 密か (ja) (ひそか, hisoka), 秘密の (ja) (ひみつの, himitsu no)
Khakas: чабых (çabıx), чазыт (çazıt), чазыттығ (çazıttığ)
Korean: 비밀(秘密)의 (bimir-ui)
Ladin: sucrët
Latin: arcānus, sēcrētus
Lithuanian: slaptas m, slapta f
Luxembourgish: geheim, heemlech
Macedonian: таен m (taen)
Malay: rahsia (ms)
Malayalam: രഹസ്യമായ (rahasyamāya)
Marathi: गुप्त (gupta)
Norman: s'gret
Norwegian: hemmelig (no), skjult
Occitan: secret (oc)
Old English: dēagol
Old Norse: leyniligr
Ottoman Turkish: كیزلو (gizli), صاقلو (saklı)
Persian: نهانی (fa) (nehâni), پنهانی (fa) (penhâni), مخفی (fa) (maxfi)
Plautdietsch: heemlich
Polish: sekretny (pl), tajny (pl), tajemny (pl)
Portuguese: secreto (pt) m
Romanian: secret (ro) m, secretă f, tainic (ro) m, tainică f
Romansch: secret, sacret
Russian: та́йный (ru) (tájnyj), секре́тный (ru) (sekrétnyj), потайно́й (ru) (potajnój)
Sami:
Kildin Sami: пя̄ҋҋт (peaj̥j̥t)
Sanskrit: गुप्त (sa) (gupta), रहस्य (sa) (rahasya)
Scottish Gaelic: dìomhair, prìobhaideach, uaigneach
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: та̑јнӣ, скро̀вит
Roman: tȃjnī (sh), skròvit (sh)
Slovak: tajný (sk)
Slovene: skriven (sl), tajen
Spanish: secreto (es)
Swedish: hemlig (sv)
Tagalog: sikreto, lihim, tago (tl), lingid (tl)
Tatar: серле (serle)
Telugu: రహస్య (rahasya)
Thai: ลับ (th) (láp)
Turkish: gizli (tr), saklı (tr)
Tuvan: чажыт (çajıt)
Ukrainian: тає́мний (tajémnyj), потайни́й (potajnýj), секре́тний (sekrétnyj)
Venetan: segreto, segret, secreto
Vietnamese: bí mật (vi) (祕密)
Volapük: klänik (vo)
Walloon: sicret (wa) m, sicrete (wa) f
Welsh: cyfrin (cy), dirgel (cy)
West Frisian: geheim
Yakut: кистэлэҥнээх (kisteleñneeq) :

### References

* ↑ “sēcrē̆t, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “secret (n.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ “secret, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
* ↑ George William Lemon. English etymology

### Anagrams

* Cretes, certes, erects, resect, terces

## Catalan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sēcrētus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central) [səˈkɾet]
* IPA: (Balearic) [səˈkɾət]
* IPA: (Valencia) [seˈkɾet]

### Adjective

secret (feminine secreta, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)
* secret

#### Derived terms

* secretament
* secretisme

### Noun

secret m (plural secrets)
* secret

#### Derived terms

* en secret

### Further reading

* “secret” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “secret”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “secret” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “secret” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sə.kʁɛ/, (dated) /sə.ɡʁɛ/
* Audio:(file)

### Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French secret, from Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secrētus.

#### Adjective

secret (feminine secrète, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secrètes)
* secret
    admirateur secret ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    agent secret ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    botte secrète ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    code secret ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    jardin secret ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    service secret ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

### Etymology 2

Inherited from Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secrētum.

#### Noun

secret m (plural secrets)
* secret
    Il n’y a pas de secret. ― There's no magic formula to it.
* secrecy
    dans le plus grand secret ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

##### Derived terms

* mettre au secret
* ne plus avoir de secret
* secret de Polichinelle
* secret d’alcôve
* secret d’État
* secret industriel
* secret médical
* secret professionnel

##### Descendants

* → Romanian: secret

### Further reading

* “secret”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* certes, crêtes, terces

## Middle French
### Etymology

From Old French secret.

### Adjective

secret m (feminine singular secrete, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)
* secret

#### Descendants

* French: secret
** → Romanian: secret

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French secret, Latin secretum, secretus. Doublet of săcret.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /seˈkret/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

secret n (plural secrete)
* secret
    Synonym: taină

#### Declension
### Adjective

secret m or n (feminine singular secretă, masculine plural secreți, feminine and neuter plural secrete)
* secret, hidden
    Synonyms: tainic, ascuns

#### Related terms

* săcret