secret
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: Christianity
Etymology: 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.
Inflected forms:
form: secrets
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: more secret
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most secret
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: secrette
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: secrete
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: secreat
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: "Can you keep a secret?" "Yes." "So can I."
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
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.
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.
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.
The storage of cryptographic secrets is one of the paramount requirements in building trustworthy systems.
gloss: The key or principle by which something is made clear; the knack.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The secret to a long-lasting marriage is compromise.
gloss: Something not understood or known.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Thou knewſt by name, and all th' ethereal powers, / All ſecrets of the deep, all Natures works,
gloss: Private seclusion.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: The work was done in secret, so that nobody could object.
gloss: The genital organs.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
in-plural
uncountable
gloss: A form of steel skullcap.
pos: noun
tags: countable
historical
uncountable
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: countable
in-plural
often
uncountable
gloss: Being or kept hidden.
pos: adj
examples: We went down a secret passage.
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.
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.
gloss: Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: 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: [...]
secret in her sapphire cell
"He was a secret man, Alexander—a secret, silent man," he continued.
gloss: Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive, separate, apart.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: 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?
gloss: Separate; distinct.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.
Synonyms: dern
hidden and Thesaurus:covert
Antonyms: overt
Related words: secrete
secretion
Derived words: best-kept secret
in secret
make no secret of
nonsecret
open secret
pseudosecret
secretist
secretmonger
secret of Polichinelle
secret sharing
secret squirrel
state secret
subsecret
supersecret
top secret
trade secret
Victoria's Secret
worst-kept secret
secret admirer
secret agent
secret agentry
secret ballot
secret chancellor
secret code
secret government
secret handshake
secret history
secret ink
secretive
secret key
secretly
secret menu
secretness
secret partner
secret police
secret recipe
secret-sacred
secret Santa
secret sauce
secret service
secret shopper
secret society
secret sock
secret vice
secret weapon
secret writing
semisecretsupersecret
top-secret
ultrasecret
unsecret
Translations: