disclose
Americanverb (used with object)
-
discloses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disclosed,
past participle, past
-
disclosing
present participle
noun
verb
-
to make (information) known
-
to allow to be seen; lay bare
Synonym Usage
See reveal.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disclosesimple
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disclosessimple
-
have disclosedperfect
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has disclosedperfect
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am disclosingprogressive
-
are disclosingprogressive
-
is disclosingprogressive
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have been disclosingperfect progressive
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has been disclosingperfect progressive
Past
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disclosedsimple
-
had disclosedperfect
-
was disclosingprogressive
-
were disclosingprogressive
-
had been disclosingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disclose
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English disclosen, desclosen, from Old French desclos-, stem of desclore, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + clore “to close,” from Latin claudere; see close
Explanation
Disclose means to reveal or expose information that has previously been kept a secret — like a politician might be forced to disclose his finances or former scandals while running for office. When a politician, corporate executive, or celebrity announces that he or she has something to disclose, the public listens. They know that the information they're about to hear was kept secret for a reason. Something incriminating or juicy is about to be revealed, like a secret affair or plummeting company profits.
Vocabulary lists containing disclose
Case Closed: Clud, Clus
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A Christmas Carol
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The Launch of Sputnik 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Google didn’t disclose the hacks until The Wall Street Journal reached out with inquiries this week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, and was recently acquired by a major streaming service — although Awad can’t disclose which one yet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
The status of that investment — which Dans reported had a value of between $250,000 and $500,000 — isn’t publicly known today because he’s no longer required to disclose his financial interests.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2026
The inspector general's report did not disclose exactly how many of the weapons remain.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
Call it $300 billion, of which roughly $240 billion would have been triple-A-rated and thus treated, for accounting purposes, as riskless, and therefore unnecessary to disclose.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Neither Moscow nor Kyiv discloses the total number of foreign soldiers in their ranks.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
The WOW-funded campaign directly discloses that they oppose the billboard blight ballot initiative in financial filings with the California secretary of state.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
"It was a green tea," the singer discloses.
From BBC ● May 27, 2026
Disney no longer discloses its streaming subscriber totals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
My story discloses instead an essential myth of childhood—inevitable pain.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
In July, OpenAI disclosed that AI systems being tested for cybersecurity capabilities had found their way outside a supposedly isolated environment and accessed systems belonging to Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Under the framework, developers will be able flag incidents for review, with a new set of rules to decide whether the issue is disclosed publicly.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
On Wednesday, OpenAI disclosed six new instances of its AI agents hiding their tracks, spoofing data and writing instructions to free themselves from constraints to escape the company’s control.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
How many of them take the fake drugs and how much they get paid to promote them is never disclosed.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
Her uncle should have disclosed that the air-conditioner didn’t work when he made the deal with me.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
“For example, compaction summaries included instructions to invent missing historical data without disclosing it and to hide mismatches in source versions,” wrote OpenAI.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
It added that delays by the MoD in disclosing information had also affected the timetable.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Commission members are not considered government employees and thus not required to file an ethics form disclosing conflicts.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2026
In a section disclosing risks to investors, Oura said its rapid growth might not be sustainable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
His insight was reinforced by a demand from the Research Corporation’s Howard Poillon that he bring the X-ray tube to a patentable stage without delay and without disclosing his design to outsiders.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
