sub-rosa

1. 1.

   designed and carried out secretly or confidentially

   “a sub-rosa report”

   “has their under-the-table backing”

   Synonymsunder-the-tablebehind-the-scenes

   Similarcovert

Questions about sub-rosa

What does sub-rosa mean?

sub-rosa means "designed and carried out secretly or confidentially".

How many syllables are in sub-rosa?

sub-rosa has 3 syllables: su-b-ro-sa. The stress falls on "su".

What is another word for sub-rosa?

Close synonyms include under-the-table, behind-the-scenes. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is sub-rosa a common word?

sub-rosa is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.