Tra từ secret - Từ điển Oxford Advanced Learner 8th

se·cret [secret secrets] adjective, noun BrE [ˈsiːkrət] NAmE [ˈsiːkrət]
adjective
1. known about by only a few people; kept hidden from others
•secret information/meetings/talks
•~ (from sb) He tried to keep it secret from his family.
• Details of the proposals remain secret.
•a secret passage leading to the beach
see also ↑top secret
2. only before noun used to describe actions and behaviour that you do not tell other people about
• He's a secret drinker.
• I didn't know you were a secret football fan.
•her secret fears
•a secret room
3. not usually before noun ~ (about sth) (of a person or their behaviour)liking to have secrets that other people do not know about; showing this
Syn: ↑secretive
•They were so secret about everything.
•Jessica caught a secret smile flitting between the two of them.

Word Origin:
late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin secretus (adjective) ‘separate, set apart’, from the verb secernere, from se- ‘apart’ + cernere ‘sift’.

Example Bank:
•They managed to keep the party more or less secret from Christine.
•a top secret meeting
•revealing the text of the hitherto secret treaty
•He's a secret drinker.
•I didn't know you were a secret football fan.
•Perhaps he has secret hopes that she'll go back to him.
•She could not tell him her secret hopes and fears.
•She told me about her secret fears for the future.
•The ceasefire was agreed following secret talks between the two leaders.
•There's a secret passage leading to the beach.
•This information has been classified top secret.
Idiom: ↑in secret
Derived Word: ↑secretly

noun
1. countable something that is known about by only a few people and not told to others
• Can you keep a secret?
• The location of the ship is a closely guarded secret.
•Shall we let him in on (= tell him) the secret?
•He made no secret of his ambition (= he didn't try to hide it).
•She was dismissed for revealing trade secrets.
•official/State secrets
•dark secrets from his past
2. (usually the secret)singular the best or only way to achieve sth; the way a particular person achieves sth
• Careful planning is the secret of success.
• She still looks so young. What's her secret?
3. countable, usually plural a thing that is not yet fully understood or that is difficult to understand
•the secrets of the universe
more at a guilty secret at ↑guilty _adj., be an open secret at ↑open _adj.

Word Origin:
late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin secretus (adjective) ‘separate, set apart’, from the verb secernere, from se- ‘apart’ + cernere ‘sift’.

Thesaurus:
secret noun
1. C
•The two leaders held a number of secret talks.
confidential • • private • • classified • • undisclosed • • personal • • intimate •
Opp: open
secret/confidential/private/classified/undisclosed/personal information
secret/confidential/private/cassified/personal documents
keep sth secret/confidential/private
2. only before noun
•He was a secret agent during the war.
undercover • • underground • |formal covert • |formal, usually disapproving clandestine •
secret/undercover/underground/covert/clandestine activity
a secret/clandestine meeting/relationship/affair
a secret/an undercover agent

Example Bank:
•Can you keep a secret?
•He refuses to make any secret of his political allegiances.
•How did the secret get out?
•I have no secrets from you.
•She let us into her secret— she was engaged.
•She revealed the secret behind her extraordinary success.
•That evening she had revealed many of her innermost secrets.
•The film stars were married in secret to avoid publicity.
•Their affair is an open secret.
•Their relationship remained a secret.
•There was some secret about the source of his wealth.
•These animals may hold the secret to combating the virus.
•Uncle Charlie hides a dark secret.
•a charming museum that is one of the city's best-kept secrets
•the secrets of staying healthy
•He made no secret of his ambition.
•He spent much of his childhood here, learning the secrets of the woods.
•Shall we let him in on the secret?
•The location of the ship is a closely guarded secret.
•They hope to unlock the secrets of the universe.
•trade/official/State secrets