secrecy
Americannoun
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secrecies
plural
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the state or condition of being secret, hidden, or concealed.
a meeting held in secrecy.
- Synonyms:
- covertness, stealth, privacy, confidentiality
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the state of being apart from other people; privacy; seclusion.
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ability to keep a secret.
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the habit or characteristic of being secretive; reticence.
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Archaic. something that is secret or mysterious.
the secrecies of nature.
noun
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the state or quality of being secret
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the state of keeping something secret
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the ability or tendency to keep things secret
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of secrecy
1375–1425; obsolete secre (< Middle French secré secret ) + -cy; replacing late Middle English secretee, equivalent to secre + -tee -ty 2
Explanation
Secrecy is a word for a state or condition where things are concealed or hidden. CIA agents and conspirators know a lot about secrecy. Since a secret is something some people don't know, secrecy is all about keeping things private or concealed. Being a spy involves a lot of secrecy. When information is important or sensitive, people try to create secrecy. Also, you can say secrecy is a quality people have, like courage. Someone who doesn't gossip has a good sense of secrecy. When all lips are sealed, there's secrecy.
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:
U.S. states’ methods for obtaining the drugs used in carrying out executions are shrouded in secrecy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
“The industry comes from a history of secrecy and so some of that’s just reflex,” Amazon Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer David Zapolsky said in an interview regarding the nondisclosure agreements.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Arguing for secrecy in all three courts, the security service told judges that it had always stuck to its core secrecy policy and never told anyone whether X was an agent, including me.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
The secrecy and lack of transparency around McConnell is fueling all sorts of understandable questions.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2026
That caution and secrecy kept many spy stories from ever being made public.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
Once the eye gets used to the quirks and secrecies of his inimitable shorthand, it discovers how deeply regional an artist he was.
From Time Magazine Archive
We have been stripped of our secrecies and of our private hoards.
From Christine by Alice Cholmondeley
Hark! as I look up into thy high secrecies, oh, tree, the face, the face, peeps down on me!—'Art thou Pierre?
From Pierre; or The Ambiguities by Herman Melville
He had perceived the cessation of that first bright outbreak of self-revelation, this relapse into the secrecies of individuality, quite early in their married life.
From Marriage by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
She saw his face cloud, she was well aware of his dislike of secrecies, but she was too much afraid that, somehow, at the last moment an insuperable obstacle would bar the way.
From The Truants by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
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.
