stealth

[ stelth ]

/ stɛlθ /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stealth ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

secret, clandestine, or surreptitious procedure.

a furtive departure or entrance.

Obsolete.

an act of stealing; theft.
the thing stolen; booty.

(initial capital letter) Military. 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.

adjective

surreptitious; secret; not openly acknowledged: a stealth hiring of the competitor's CEO; the stealth issue of the presidential race.

RELATED WORDS

covertness, furtiveness, slyness

Nearby words

steal the show, stealage, stealer, stealing, stealingly, stealth, stealth bomber, stealth tax, stealth technology, stealthy, steam

Origin of stealth

1200–50; Middle English stelthe; compare Old English stælthing theft. See steal, -th¹

Related formsstealth·ful, adjectivestealth·ful·ly, adverbstealth·less, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for stealth

Another senior Air Force official with stealth fighter experience agreed.
New U.S. Stealth Jet Can’t Fire Its Gun Until 2019|Dave Majumdar|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
High flying and fast, the F-22 Raptor stealth jet is by far the most lethal fighter America has ever built.
Pentagon Worries That Russia Can Now Outshoot U.S. Stealth Jets|Dave Majumdar|December 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The U.S. Navy is slowly preparing the first of its massive, 15,500-ton Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers for sea next year.
Can the Navy's $12 Billion Stealth Destroyer Stay Afloat?|Dave Majumdar|October 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
A couple of years later, the stealth world did start to open up.
How the Pentagon Strangles Its Most Advanced Stealth Warplanes|Bill Sweetman|October 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST

An independent “stealth expert” was a writer whom nobody had heard from before, and nobody heard from afterward.
How the Pentagon Strangles Its Most Advanced Stealth Warplanes|Bill Sweetman|October 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This man, who commanded men and had gained his own way by sheer brain and combativeness, fled by stealth from a dreaded enemy.
Robert Toombs|Pleasant A. Stovall
Nonjurors and Scotch Episcopalians could only meet by stealth in private houses.
The English Church in the Eighteenth Century|Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton
Babies—she could not tell why—made their appearance in this world by stealth, and must be searched for furtively.
Brother Copas|Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
These flies are continually prowling about and prying into every corner, to find, by stealth, a nidus for their eggs.
Insect Architecture|James Rennie
Torcy, three times more starched than usual, seemed to look at everything by stealth.
The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete|Duc de Saint-Simon

British Dictionary definitions for stealth (1 of 2)

stealth

/ (stɛlθ) /

noun

the act or characteristic of moving with extreme care and quietness, esp so as to avoid detectionthe stealth of a cat

cunning or underhand procedure or dealing

archaic the act of stealing

Derived Formsstealthful, adjective

Word Origin for stealth

C13 stelthe; see steal, -th 1

British Dictionary definitions for stealth (2 of 2)

Stealth

/ (stɛlθ) /

noun

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

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

stealth

noun

adjective

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of stealth

Examples from the Web for stealth

British Dictionary definitions for stealth (1 of 2)

stealth

noun

Word Origin for stealth

British Dictionary definitions for stealth (2 of 2)

Stealth

noun