SECRET


Meaning of SECRET in English

(~s)

Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.

1.

If something is ~, it is known about by only a small number of people, and is not told or shown to anyone else.

Soldiers have been training at a ~ location...

The police have been trying to keep the documents ~.

ADJ: ADJ n, v n ADJ, v-link ADJ

see also top ~

~ly

He wore a hidden microphone to ~ly tape-record conversations.

ADV: ADV with v, ADV adj/n

2.

A ~ is a fact that is known by only a small number of people, and is not told to anyone else.

I think he enjoyed keeping our love a ~...

N-COUNT

3.

If you say that a particular way of doing things is the ~ of achieving something, you mean that it is the best or only way to achieve it.

The ~ of success is honesty and fair dealing...

N-SING: the N, oft the N of n

4.

Something’s ~s are the things about it which have never been fully explained.

We have an opportunity now to really unlock the ~s of the universe...

N-COUNT: usu pl, oft with poss

5.

If you do something in ~, you do it without anyone else knowing.

Dan found out that I had been meeting my ex-boyfriend in ~.

PHRASE: PHR after v

6.

If you say that someone can keep a ~, you mean that they can be trusted not to tell other people a ~ that you have told them.

Tom was utterly indiscreet, and could never keep a ~.

PHRASE: V inflects

7.

If you make no ~ of something, you tell others about it openly and clearly.

His wife made no ~ of her hatred for the formal occasions...

PHRASE: V inflects, PHR of n

Collins COBUILD.      Толковый словарь английского языка для изучающих язык Коллинз COBUILD (международная база данных языков Бирмингемского университета) .