Secret vs Secrecy - What's the difference?
secret | secrecy |
(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= * Rambler
(uncountable) Something not understood or known.
* Milton
(archaic, in the plural) The genital organs.
Being or kept hidden.
* Bible, Deuteronomy xxix. 29
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=1 (obsolete) Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
* Fenton
(obsolete) Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) Separate; distinct.
* Cudworth
To make or keep secret.
* 1984 , Peter Scott Lawrence,
* 1986 ,
* 1994 , Phyllis Granoff & Koichi Shinohara,
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. To keep secret. [Obs. ''Bacon .
Concealment; the condition of being secret or hidden.
*
*:Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.
The habit of keeping secrets.
As nouns the difference between secret and secrecy
is that secret is knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden while secrecy is concealment; the condition of being secret or hidden.As an adjective secret
is being or kept hidden.As a verb secret
is to make or keep secret.secret
English
Noun
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.}}
- To tell our secrets is often folly; to communicate those of others is treachery.
- All secrets of the deep, all nature's works.
Synonyms
* (l)Derived terms
* family secret * in secret * keep secret * open secret * Oxford secret * secretist * state secret * top secret * trade secret * Victoria's SecretAdjective
(en adjective)- The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us.
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.}}
- secret in her sapphire cell
- Secret Romans, that have spoke the word, / And will not palter.
- They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.
Alternative forms
* secrette (obsolete)Synonyms
* private * dern * confidential * concealedAntonyms
* overtDerived terms
* secret admirer * secret agent * secret ballot * secret code * secret partner * secret police * * secret Santa * secret service * secret society * secret writing * secretive * secretly * secretness * unsecretVerb
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.
InfoWorld, InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
- Diskless workstations [...] make it difficult for individuals to copy information [...] onto a diskette and secret it away.
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
* secreteReferences
* “†?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 .