Surreptitious

//səˌɹɛpˈtɪʃəs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements).

    "He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement."

Adjective
  1. 1
    conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods wordnet
  2. 2
    marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
concealedstealthyabstruseartfulback doorback-door

Antonyms

All antonyms
overt

Example

More examples

"Spenser would not tell anyone his surreptitious plan to get back at his friends for pranking him."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin surrēptīcius (“furtive, clandestine”), from surrēpō (“to creep along”).

Related phrases

surreptitious advertisementsurreptitious advertising

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