secret
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
[edit] Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈsiːkɹət/
- Audio (US)help, file
- Hyphenation: se‧cret
[edit] Noun
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Singular |
Plural |
secret (plural secrets)
- Knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden. [from later 14th c.]
- Can you keep a secret? So can I.
[edit] Derived terms
secret (noun)
[edit] Translations
knowledge that is hidden
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[edit] Adjective
secret (comparative more secret, superlative most secret)
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Positive |
Comparative |
Superlative |
- Being or kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
- We went down a secret passage.
[edit] Alternative spellings
- secrette (obsolete)
[edit] Synonyms
[edit] Antonyms
[edit] Derived terms
secret (adjective)
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
being or kept hidden.
[edit] Verb
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Infinitive |
Third person singular |
Present participle |
to secret (third-person singular simple present secrets, present participle secretting (UK) or secreting (US), simple past and past participle secretted (UK) or secreted (US))
- (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.
- 1984, Peter Scott Lawrence, Around the mulberry tree, Firefly Books, p. 26
[edit] Usage notes
- All other dictionaries label this sense 'obsolete', but the citations above and on the citations page demonstrate recent usage.
- The present participle and past forms secreting and secreted are liable to confusion with the corresponding heteronymous forms of the similar verb secrete.
[edit] Quotations
- For more examples of the usage of this term see the citations page.
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Dictionary notes
- Most other dictionaries do not have an entry for the verb sense of secret; all of those that do list it mark it as obsolete, seeing it as having been superseded by its derivation secrete.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Anagrams
[edit] French
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Adjective
secret m. (f. secrète, m. plural secrets, f. plural secrètes)
[edit] Noun
secret m. (plural secrets)