Discreetly

//dᵻˈskritli// adv

adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Acting in a discreet manner; acting in a way that respects privacy or secrecy; quietly

    "Mao was animated and following every nuance of the conversation, but I could see that he was also becoming very tired. Chou had been discreetly glancing at his watch with increasing frequency, so I decided that I should try to bring the session to a close."

  2. 2
    inconspicuously

    "And, placed discreetly among these commonplaces, a few pieces of genuine quality, bizarrely distinguished by craftsmanship from the vulgar products of the machine."

Adverb
  1. 1
    with discretion; prudently and with wise self-restraint wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
circumspectlyprudentlyartfullyastutelycannilycarefully

Example

More examples

"His mother discreetly kept an eye on the boy."

Etymology

From discreet + -ly.

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