stealth

American  

[stelth] / stɛlθ /

noun

1. secret, clandestine, or surreptitious procedure.

2. a furtive departure or entrance.

3. Obsolete.

   1. an act of stealing; theft.

   2. the thing stolen; booty.

4. Military. Stealth, a U.S. Air Force project involving a range of technologies, with the purpose of developing aircraft that are difficult to detect by sight, sound, radar, and infrared energy.

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adjective

1. not openly acknowledged; surreptitious; secret.

   They used underhand methods such as the stealth hiring of a competitor's CEO.

   Spending cuts are the stealth issue of this presidential race.

2. (of a transgender person) living as a cisgender member of one's identified gender, without revealing that one is transgender.

   For some transgender people, being stealth may be the safest option.

stealth ¹ British  

/ stɛlθ /

noun

1. the act or characteristic of moving with extreme care and quietness, esp so as to avoid detection

   the stealth of a cat

2. cunning or underhand procedure or dealing

3. archaic the act of stealing

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Stealth ² British  

/ stɛlθ /

noun

1. informal (modifier) denoting or referring to technology that aims to reduce the radar, thermal, and acoustic recognizability of aircraft and missiles

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Usage

What does stealth mean? Stealth is a specific way of acting or moving that is intended to be secret or of avoiding detection, as in The cat used its stealth to sneak up on the unsuspecting mouse. Stealth is also used to describe something that is secret or is trying to avoid detection, as in The thieves organized a stealth meeting, away from the watchful eyes of the detectives.The adjectives stealthful and stealthy are used to describe something that uses stealth, as in The stealthy fox managed to avoid getting caught by the farmer’s dogs. Stealthily and stealthfully are used to describe something done with stealth, as in Santa Claus stealthily slipped the Christmas presents into the stockings to avoid waking the children.  Example: The spy used cunning and stealth to sneak into the embassy and smuggle out the documents. 

Other Word Forms

• stealthful adjective
• stealthfully adverb
• stealthless adjective

Etymology

Origin of stealth

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English stelthe, stelth; compare Old English stælthing “theft”; steal, -th ¹

Example Sentences

They also note that even though oil has been left behind in the commodity boom, a stealth rally is in progress, and the energy sector is too cheap to ignore.

From Barron's

The PLA remains one of the world’s largest and most formidable armed forces, with an estimated two million personnel operating advanced armaments from stealth fighters to aircraft carriers.

From The Wall Street Journal

Some holes remain in the region’s manufacturing capability, including stealth fighters, long-range missiles and satellite intelligence.

From The Wall Street Journal

This morning called for the quiet stealth of a friend’s closed carriage and not the booming drums of a marching band.

From Literature

Because Flamingo was designed on a budget, it lacks many of the sophisticated stealth elements or complex visual guidance systems installed on Western missiles.

From The Wall Street Journal