CONFIDENTIAL


Meaning of CONFIDENTIAL in English

con ‧ fi ‧ den ‧ tial /ˌkɒnfəˈdenʃ ə l◂, ˌkɒnfɪˈdenʃ ə l◂ $ ˌkɑːn-/ BrE AmE adjective

[ Word Family: noun : ↑ confidence , ↑ confidant , ↑ confidentiality ; adverb : ↑ confidently , ↑ confidentially ; adjective : ↑ confident , ↑ confidential ; verb : ↑ confide ]

1 . spoken or written in secret and intended to be kept secret:

a confidential government report

Doctors are required to keep patients’ records completely confidential.

The information will be regarded as strictly confidential (=completely confidential) .

2 . a confidential way of speaking or behaving shows that you do not want other people to know what you are saying:

His voice sank into a confidential whisper.

—confidentially adverb

• • •

THESAURUS

▪ secret known about by only a few people, who have agreed not to tell anyone else:

a secret meeting place

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The details of the proposal must remain secret.

▪ confidential used about information, especially in business or government, that is secret and not intended to be shown or told to other people:

a highly confidential report

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Employees’ personal details are treated as strictly confidential.

▪ classified used about information that the government has ordered to be kept secret from most people:

He was accused of passing on classified information to the Russians in the 1950s.

▪ sensitive used about information that is kept secret because there would be problems if the wrong people knew it:

A teenager managed to hack into sensitive US Air Force files.

▪ covert [only before noun] used about things that are done secretly, especially by a government or official organization:

a CIA covert operation

▪ undercover [usually before noun] used about things that are done secretly by the police in order to catch criminals or find out information:

Detectives arrested the suspect after a five-day undercover operation.

▪ underground an underground organization or newspaper is one that operates or is produced secretly and opposes the government:

Her father was a member of the underground resistance movement in France during World War II.

▪ clandestine /klænˈdestən, klænˈdestɪn/ secret and often illegal or immoral:

clandestine meetings

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his involvement in a clandestine operation to sell arms to Iran

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a clandestine love affair

▪ hush-hush informal used about information or activities that are kept officially secret:

He was put in charge of some hush-hush military project.

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I’ve no idea what he does – it’s all very hush-hush.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.