secret

Questions about secret

What is another word for secret?

It depends which secret you mean. In the sense “conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods”, the synonyms are clandestine, cloak-and-dagger, hole-and-corner, hugger-mugger, hush-hush, surreptitious, undercover, underground. Across all 14 senses there are 23 distinct synonyms, and they are not interchangeable with each other — this page lists them under the sense each one belongs to.

What is the opposite of secret?

WordNet records no antonym for secret. Antonymy in WordNet is a relation between specific word forms rather than between concepts, so it is recorded only where lexicographers judged the pairing direct. An absence here means none was recorded, not that none can be imagined.

Why are the synonyms for secret split into groups?

Because secret carries 14 recorded senses and each has its own set of substitutes. A single flat list would put words from unrelated meanings side by side with nothing to tell them apart, which is exactly how a writer picks the wrong one. The grouping comes from WordNet's synsets, not from an editorial judgement of ours.

Does this page cover every sense of secret?

It covers the 10 senses that carry a synonym, antonym, broader or narrower term. The remaining 4 senses have none recorded, so they are left off a thesaurus page and shown in full on the word page instead.

Where do the synonyms for secret come from?

From Princeton University's WordNet, a lexical database maintained by lexicographers since 1985. A synonym here means a word form that shares a synset with this word — a set of forms interchangeable in one recorded context. Nothing on this page is generated by a language model.

Other views of secret

• Full entry for secretAll 14 senses, with examples, usage labels, syllables and pronunciation.
• Rhymes for secretWords matching from the last stressed vowel onward, grouped by syllable count.
• Thesaurus homeHow WordNet synsets work, and the collections built for synonym work.