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What is the difference between confidential and secret?

confidential | secret |

Secret is a synonym of confidential.



As adjectives the difference between confidential and secret

is that confidential is (meant to be) kept secret within a certain circle of persons; not intended to be known publicly while secret is being or kept hidden.

As a noun secret is

knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.

As a verb secret is

to make or keep secret.

confidential

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (meant to be) kept secret within a certain circle of persons; not intended to be known publicly
    • The newspaper claims a leaked confidential report by the government admits to problems with corrupt MPs.
  • (dated) Inclined to share confidences.
    • Sitting in front of the fire, they became quite confidential , and began to gossip.

    Synonyms

    * dern

    Derived terms

    * confide

    secret

    English

    Noun

  • (countable, uncountable) Knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
    • , volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Obama's once hip brand is now tainted , passage=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.}}
  • * Rambler
    • To tell our secrets is often folly; to communicate those of others is treachery.
  • (uncountable) Something not understood or known.
  • * Milton
    • All secrets of the deep, all nature's works.
  • (archaic, in the plural) The genital organs.

    • Synonyms

    * (l)

    Derived terms

    * family secret * in secret * keep secret * open secret * Oxford secret * secretist * state secret * top secret * trade secret * Victoria's Secret

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Being or kept hidden.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xxix. 29
    • The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival 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.}}
  • (obsolete) Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
  • * Fenton
    • secret in her sapphire cell
  • (obsolete) Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Secret Romans, that have spoke the word, / And will not palter.
  • (obsolete) Separate; distinct.
  • * Cudworth
    • They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.

    Alternative forms

    * secrette (obsolete)

    Synonyms

    * private * dern * confidential * concealed

    Antonyms

    * overt

    Derived terms

    * secret admirer * secret agent * secret ballot * secret code * secret partner * secret police * * secret Santa * secret service * secret society * secret writing * secretive * secretly * secretness * unsecret

    Related terms

    * secrete * secretion

    Verb

  • To make or keep secret.
  • * 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.

    Usage notes

    * All other dictionaries label this sense 'obsolete', but the citations above and on the citations page demonstrate recent usage as part of the idiom "secret [something] away". * The present participle and past forms secreting and secreted are liable to confusion with the corresponding heteronymous forms of the similar verb secrete.

    Quotations

    *

    Derived terms

    * secrete

    References

    * “ †?secret, v.'']” listed in the '''' [2nd Ed.; 1989]
    Tagged as ''obsolete''. Notes: “In the inflected forms it is not easy to distinguish between ?''secret'' and [http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50218071 secrete ''v.     ” * “ Se"cret' (?), v. t.]” listed on [http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.page.sh?page=1301 page 1,301] of '''' (1913)
    '''Se"cret     (?), v. t. To keep secret. [Obs. ''Bacon .

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