secretive
1 Americanadjective
adjective
adjective
-
inclined to secrecy; reticent
-
another word for secretory
Usage
What does secretive mean? Secretive is commonly used to describe people or organizations that are prone to secrecy—they avoid revealing information about themselves and try to keep their actions private. The word secretive can also be used to describe such actions.People who are secretive often don’t let other people get to know them very well, often by keeping secrets about their life. They may do this because they have something to hide or because they don’t trust other people.Organizations described as secretive are often those that hide details about their operations. A secretive company may be one that closely guards information about its product development or financial situation.Animals described as secretive are those that tend to stay hidden.Describing things or people as secretive often implies that you are suspicious of them because it seems like they are hiding something.An unrelated and less common meaning of secretive is based not on secret but on the verb secrete. This sense of secretive means involving the process of secretion—the production and release of substances from specialized cells within an organism, such as glands. For example, the pancreas can be described as secretive in this way because it secretes digestive fluid and insulin. Another word for this is secretory.Example: I always ask Sylvie about her weekend plans, but she’s so secretive that she only smiles furtively and walks away.
Other Word Forms
- secretively adverb
- secretiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of secretive1
1425–75; late Middle English; back formation from secretiveness (itself modeled on French secrétivité ). See secret, -ive
Origin of secretive2
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.
With a secretive smile, he asks, “Busy tomorrow?”
From Literature
Unable to run tours into North Korea, he has been offering trips through border areas so customers can catch glimpses into the secretive state from a distance.
From Barron's
Slovenian officials blame the secretive Israeli firm Black Cube for trying to manipulate Sunday’s vote in Slovenia.
They are held in a network of prisons, including the notorious Evin, as well as secretive detention centers within security and intelligence complexes.
There’s a more or less journalistic documentary about the secretive operations of the Church of Scientology, which sometimes deconstructs itself into a movie about the failed attempt to make such a documentary.
From Salon
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.
