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Puzzle vs Secret - What's the difference?

puzzle | secret | Related terms |

Puzzle is a related term of secret.


As nouns the difference between puzzle and secret

is that puzzle is puzzle while secret is (countable|uncountable) knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden.

As an adjective secret is

being or kept hidden.

As a verb secret is

to make or keep secret.

puzzle

English

(wikipedia puzzle)

Noun

(en noun)
  • Anything that is difficult to understand or make sense of.
    • Where he went after he left the house is a puzzle.
  • A game for one person that is more or less difficult to work out or complete.
  • A crossword puzzle.
  • A jigsaw puzzle.
  • A riddle.
  • (archaic) Something made with marvellous skill; something of ingenious construction.
  • The state of being puzzled; perplexity.
    • to be in a puzzle

    Synonyms

    * (anything difficult to understand or make sense of ): anybody's guess, anyone's guess, conundrum, enigma, mystery * (game for one person ): brain-teaser, poser * (crossword puzzle ): crossword, crossword puzzle * (''jigsaw puzzle): jigsaw, jigsaw puzzle * (riddle ): guessing game, riddle

    Derived terms

    * Chinese puzzle * crossword puzzle * jigsaw puzzle * monkey puzzle * puzzle out * puzzle over * puzzled * puzzlement * puzzler * puzzling

    Verb

    (puzzl)
  • (label) To perplex (someone).
  • * (Henry More) (1614-1687)
    • A very shrewd disputant in those points is dexterous in puzzling others, if they be not thoroughpaced speculators in those great theories.
  • * (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
    • He is perpetually puzzled and perplexed amidst his own blunders.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1927, author= F. E. Penny
    • , chapter=4, title= Pulling the Strings , passage=The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.}}
  • To make intricate; to entangle.
  • * (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
    • The ways of Heaven are dark and intricate, / Puzzled in mazes, and perplexed with error.
  • * (William Cowper) (1731-1800)
    • They disentangle from the puzzled skein.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * puzzled * puzzle out * puzzle over * puzzle through * puzzler * puzzling

    Related terms

    * puzzlement

    References

    ----

    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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    Anagrams

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