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View synonyms for open secret

open secret

noun

  1. something supposedly secret but actually known quite generally.


open secret

noun

  1. something that is supposed to be secret but is widely known
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of open secret1

First recorded in 1875–80
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Idioms and Phrases

Something that is supposedly clandestine but is in fact widely known, as in It's an open secret that both their children are adopted . This expression originated as the title of a Spanish play by Calderón, El Secreto a Voces (“The Noisy Secret”), which was translated by Carlo Gozzi into Italian as Il pubblico secreto (1769). In English the term came into general use during the 1800s.
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Example Sentences

“Itzel Schnaas’ video changed everything,” says María Scherer, a journalist who started investigating rumors about abuse by Roemer years ago when, she says, it was still an open secret.

From Time

Now, an open secret has become an international political scandal.

From Time

Haya said these cherry-picking practices have been an open secret.

His disastrous relationship with his eldest child, Charles, was an open secret, remarked on by everyone.

From Time

Though there’s no way that Grant or Scott could have been open about being a couple at the time, their relationship seems to have been an open secret.

Others shared stories of friends who suffered from bulimia in an open secret.

It was an open secret, and one that discomfited several of his brethren.

But the existence of underground markets selling tiger in Guangdong has long been an open secret.

It is an open secret (being open is part of the strategy) that the Israeli military has in excess of a hundred nuclear warheads.

The women say, however, that “special time” with Saraswati was an open secret.

It is the open secret of the universe, and the Bible gives us the key to it.

The causes of the event were an open secret to his friends and acquaintances.

But his attentions never gave rise to jealousy; for it was an open secret in the servants' hall that he loved his mistress.

The matter is an open secret; all Rome is discussing the decrees from the Palatine against the Nazarenes.

His love of Beatrice de Bardi was an open secret—all Florence knew of it.

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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.

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