Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - secret

(secrets) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. If something is secret, it is known about by only a small number of people, and is not told or shown to anyone else. Soldiers have been training at a secret location... The police have been trying to keep the documents secret. ADJ: ADJ n, v n ADJ, v-link ADJ see also top secret • secretly He wore a hidden microphone to secretly tape-record conversations. ADV: ADV with v, ADV adj/n 2. A secret is a fact that is known by only a small number of people, and is not told to anyone else. I think he enjoyed keeping our love a secret... N-COUNT 3. If you say that a particular way of doing things is the secret of achieving something, you mean that it is the best or only way to achieve it. The secret of success is honesty and fair dealing... N-SING: the N, oft the N of n 4. Something’s secrets are the things about it which have never been fully explained. We have an opportunity now to really unlock the secrets of the universe... N-COUNT: usu pl, oft with poss 5. If you do something in secret, you do it without anyone else knowing. Dan found out that I had been meeting my ex-boyfriend in secret. PHRASE: PHR after v 6. If you say that someone can keep a secret, you mean that they can be trusted not to tell other people a secret that you have told them. Tom was utterly indiscreet, and could never keep a secret. PHRASE: V inflects 7. If you make no secret of something, you tell others about it openly and clearly. His wife made no secret of her hatred for the formal occasions... PHRASE: V inflects, PHR of n