Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having a tendency to keep one's thoughts or activities unknown to others.
  • adjective Characterized by or done in secrecy.
  • adjective Suggestive of the keeping of secrets.
  • adjective Tending to remain concealed. Used of animals.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Tending to secrete or keep secret; given to secrecy or concealment; reticent or reserved concerning one's own or another's affairs.
  • Causing or promoting secretion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Tending to secrete, or to keep secret or private.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having an inclination to secrecy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective inclined to secrecy or reticence about divulging information

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The congressman from Zulia state criticized what he called the "secretive" nature of the president's deliberation over the measure.

    Venezuela Plans to Move Reserve Funds José de Córdoba 2011

  • For weeks, leading Democrats have castigated pro-Republican special interest groups involved in the current election campaign for what they describe as secretive fundraising practices.

    Reuters: Top News Mark Hosenball 2010

  • Is a country that has long been secretive is having those secrets revealed by social networks?

    A New DARPA « Beki's Blog (there's an original name) 2010

  • Rep. Mike Ross, who flip-flopped on the public option and has authored an amendment that seems like a copycat of Max Baucus's no-good, terribly bad bill, has been in secretive talks with a Republican, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), for weeks.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

  • Oh well, so much said about that and yet I remain secretive about the specifics.

    Archive 2009-11-01 2009

  • Oh well, so much said about that and yet I remain secretive about the specifics.

    Dark Tales : The Lovecraft News Network 2009

  • We could say secretive is better, but realistically for large applications you have to justify your every-move – for Apple and other companies it might happen within their own compounds, it still happends.

    Losing my religion | FactoryCity 2009

  • Part of what drives this notion of Putin as so secretive is that Yeltsin seemed to be such an accessible figure, particularly to the West.

    Parsing Putin 2005

  • Part of what drives this notion of Putin as so secretive is that Yeltsin seemed to be such an accessible figure, particularly to the West.

    Parsing Putin 2005

  • Part of what drives this notion of Putin as so secretive is that Yeltsin seemed to be such an accessible figure, particularly to the West.

    Parsing Putin 2005

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