privy

American  

[priv-ee] / ˈprɪv i /

adjective

privier, priviest

1. 

   participating in the knowledge of something private or secret (usually followed byto ).

   Many persons were privy to the plot.

2. private; assigned to private uses.

3. belonging or pertaining to some particular person, especially with reference to a sovereign.

4. secret, concealed, hidden, or secluded.

5. acting or done in secret.

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noun

• privies
  plural

1. outhouse.

2. Law. a person participating directly in or having a derivative interest in a legal transaction.

privy British  

/ ˈprɪvɪ /

adjective

1. participating in the knowledge of something secret

2. archaic secret, hidden, etc

3. archaic of or relating to one person only

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noun

1. a lavatory, esp an outside one

2. law a person in privity with another See privity

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• privies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of privy

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English prive, from Old French: “private” (adjective), “close friend, private place” (noun), from Latin prīvātus private

Explanation

If you're privy to something, you've been let in on a secret or know about something that most people don't. Not many people are privy to what those top secret documents are all about, for example. The adjective privy comes from the Latin privatus, meaning “private,” and describes someone who has knowledge of secret or confidential information. But watch out: If you use privy as a noun, it can mean “outhouse” or “toilet,” which actually might be a good place to hide your diary if you don't want anyone else to be privy to its contents.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

privy privies privier

All of this should have been thought about long before now, but I wasn’t privy to a lot of things.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026

“Mrs. Trump played no role whatsoever in organizing the wedding event and was not privy to any aspect of its financial planning.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

I am not now privy to the thinking of Yale administrators and trustees.

From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2026

They do not pay any rent for this central London accommodation, instead it is paid by the "privy purse", which is the monarch's personal money, to the Royal Household.

From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026

It was a very old building, the kind with bathwater that still had to be stored in drums, windows without glass, and privy scaffolds made of bricks.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Three indoor privies were lighted by skylights and ingeniously ventilated by a 150-foot-long lateral tunnel that drew in air and discharged it through adjoining chimneys, providing a continuous draft.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

I never followed up to learn whether it was in time to restock the park privies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2023

In 2011, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation issued a “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” asking the world’s brightest minds to redesign our privies to recover valuable resources from the waste.

From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2021

The nitre beds were large rectangles of rotted manure and straw, moistened weekly with urine, “dung water,” and liquid from privies, cesspools and drains, and turned over regularly, according to accounts at the time.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 9, 2020

But their well-tended vegetable gardens, small frame houses, and privies were blackened with soot from coal-burning steel plants nearby.

From "Fannie Never Flinched" by Mary Cronk Farrell

An thou wilt have it so, be it in my house, for there it will be privier both for me and for thee.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 by Sir Richard Francis Burton