Covertly

adv

adv ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a covert manner, secretly.

    "Only a little removed from the predatory oafdom of male adolescence, he is suspicious of Christian and covertly protective of Cher's person and future."

Adverb
  1. 1
    in a covert manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
behind the scenescovertdarklyhugger muggerin the darkprivate

Example

More examples

"A bug on the Macintosh version of the Flash software allows malicious websites to covertly eavesdrop on visitors using their webcam and microphone."

Etymology

From Middle English covertli, equivalent to covert + -ly.

More for "covertly"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.