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1. Not open or public; kept private or not revealed
   "a secret formula"; "secret ingredients"; "secret talks"
    
2. Conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
   "secret missions"; "a secret agent"; "secret sales of arms";
   - clandestine, cloak-and-dagger, hole-and-corner, hugger-mugger, hush-hush, surreptitious, undercover, underground
    
3. Not openly made known
   "a secret marriage";
   - unavowed
    
4. Communicated covertly
   "their secret signal was a wink"; "secret messages"
    
5. Not expressed
   "secret thoughts";
   - private
    
6. Designed to elude detection
   "a secret passage"; "the secret compartment in the desk";
   - hidden
    
7. Hidden from general view or use
   "a secret garden";
   - privy, secluded
    
8. (of information) given in confidence or in secret
   "their secret communications";
   - confidential
    
9. Indulging only covertly
   "a secret alcoholic"
    
10. Having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding
    "the secret learning of the ancients";
    - mysterious, mystic, mystical, occult, orphic
     
11. The next to highest level of official classification for documents

1. Something that should remain hidden from others (especially information that is not to be passed on)
   "the combination to the safe was a secret"; "he tried to keep his drinking a secret"
    
2. Information known only to a special group
   "the secret of Cajun cooking";
   - arcanum
    
3. Something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
   "it remains one of nature's secrets";
   - mystery, enigma, closed book

Derived forms: secrets

See also: classified, concealed, covert, esoteric, inward, private, unacknowledged

Type of: gen [Brit, informal], info [informal], information, perplexity

Encyclopedia: Secret, Strange & True