secret society

American  

noun

1. an organization, as a fraternal society, the members of which take secret initiation oaths, share secret passwords and rites, and are bound to assist each other.

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secret society British  

noun

1. a society or organization that conceals its rites, activities, etc, from those who are not members

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Etymology

Origin of secret society

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

secret society

“In some sense, it feels better to believe that there’s a secret society controlling everything than believing that entropy and chaos rule.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2024

While his main focus was always communism, Welch eventually came to believe that the conspiracy’s roots twisted far back into history, to the Illuminati, an 18th-century Bavarian secret society.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 21, 2024

“It is a pleasure to stand before 1,500 of the most little known and elusive of that secret society or conspiracy we call the Federalist Society,” he said.

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2023

Getting three yellows in the opening half, two of them for head-to-shoulder incidents, none of which were upgraded to red by the secret society in the bunker, hardly helped their cause.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2023

What better way to defang a secret society than to make public its most secret information?

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt