secret: Meaning and Definition of

se•cret

1. done, made, or conducted without the knowledge of others: secret negotiations.
2. kept from the knowledge of any but the initiated or privileged: a secret password.
3. faithful or cautious in keeping confidential matters confidential; close-mouthed; reticent.
4. designed or working to escape notice, knowledge, or observation: a secret drawer; the secret police.
5. secluded, sheltered, or withdrawn: a secret hiding place.
6. beyond ordinary human understanding; esoteric.
7. (of information, a document, etc.)
1. bearing the classification secret.
2. limited to persons authorized to use information documents, etc., so classified.

1. something that is or is kept secret, hidden, or concealed.
2. a mystery: the secrets of nature.
3. a reason or explanation not immediately or generally apparent.
4. a method, formula, plan, etc., known only to the initiated or the few: the secret of happiness; a trade secret.
5. a classification assigned to information, a document, etc., considered less vital to security than top-secret but more vital than confidential, and limiting its use to persons who have been cleared, as by various government agencies, as trustworthy to handle such material. Cf.(def. 5).
6. (cap.)a variable prayer in the Roman and other Latin liturgies, said inaudibly by the celebrant after the offertory and immediately before the preface.
7. unknown to others; in private; secretly: A resistance movement was already being organized in secret.