adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb

1. 1
   In secret, covertly. not-comparable

   "Mary cheated secretly in the test, and never got caught."

Adverb

1. 1
   not openly; inwardly wordnet
2. 2
   in secrecy; not openly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

in secretbackbehind closed doorsbehind the curtainbehind the scenesbehind the veil

Antonyms

All antonyms

obviouslypublicly

Example

More examples

"He was seen to eat a piece of cake secretly."

Etymology

From secret + -ly.

Related phrases

in secret

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