What does secrecy mean?

Definitions for secrecy
ˈsi krə sise·cre·cy

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word secrecy.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. secrecy, secretiveness, silencenoun

    the trait of keeping things secret

  2. privacy, privateness, secrecy, concealmentnoun

    the condition of being concealed or hidden

Wiktionary

  1. secrecynoun

    Concealment; the condition of being secret or hidden

  2. secrecynoun

    The habit of keeping secrets.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Secrecynoun

    Etymology: from secret.

    That’s not suddenly to be perform’d,
    But with advice and silent secrecy. William Shakespeare, Henry VI.

    The lady Anne,
    Whom the king hath in secrecy long married,
    This day was view’d in open as his queen. William Shakespeare, H. VIII.

    In nature’s book of infinite secrecy,
    A little can I read. William Shakespeare, Ant. and Cleopatra.

    Thou in thy secrecy, although alone,
    Best with thyself accompany’d, seek’st not
    Social communication. John Milton, Parad. Lost.

    There is no such thing as perfect secrecy, to encourage a rational mind to the perpetration of any base action; for a man must first extinguish and put out the great light within him, his conscience; he must get away from himself, and shake off the thousand witnesses which he always carries about him, before he can be alone. Robert South, Sermons.

    It is not with publick as with private prayer: in this rather secrecy is commanded than outward shew; whereas that being the publick act of a whole society, requireth accordingly more care to be had of external appearance. Richard Hooker.

Wikipedia

  1. Secrecy

    Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controversial, depending on the content or nature of the secret, the group or people keeping the secret, and the motivation for secrecy. Secrecy by government entities is often decried as excessive or in promotion of poor operation; excessive revelation of information on individuals can conflict with virtues of privacy and confidentiality. It is often contrasted with social transparency. Secrecy can exist in a number of different ways: encoding or encryption (where mathematical and technical strategies are used to hide messages), true secrecy (where restrictions are put upon those who take part of the message, such as through government security classification) and obfuscation, where secrets are hidden in plain sight behind complex idiosyncratic language (jargon) or steganography. Another classification proposed by Claude Shannon in 1948 reads there are three systems of secrecy within communication: concealment systems, including such methods as invisible ink, concealing a message in an innocent text, or in a fake covering cryptogram, or other methods in which the existence of the message is concealed from the enemy privacy systems, for example, voice inversion, in which special equipment is required to recover the message "true" secrecy systems where the meaning of the message is concealed by the cypher, code, etc., although its existence is not hidden, and the enemy is assumed to have any special equipment necessary to intercept and record the transmitted signal

ChatGPT

  1. secrecy

    Secrecy is the act of keeping information hidden or concealed, often to prevent others from knowing or discovering certain facts or details. It involves maintaining a state of privacy or confidentiality to protect sensitive or valuable information from being shared or disclosed. This concept often applies to personal matters, government or business information, or any other situation where knowledge is restricted or controlled.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Secrecynoun

    the state or quality of being hidden; as, his movements were detected in spite of their secrecy

  2. Secrecynoun

    that which is concealed; a secret

  3. Secrecynoun

    seclusion; privacy; retirement

  4. Secrecynoun

    the quality of being secretive; fidelity to a secret; forbearance of disclosure or discovery

  5. Etymology: [From Secret.]

Wikidata

  1. Secrecy

    Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controversial, depending on the content of the secret, the group or people keeping the secret, and the motivation for secrecy. Secrecy by government entities is often decried as excessive or in promotion of poor operation; excessive revelation of information on individuals can conflict with virtues of privacy and confidentiality.

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. secrecy

    In military economy this quality is peculiarly requisite. It signifies fidelity to a secret; taciturnity inviolate; close silence. Officers, in particular, should be well aware of the importance of it, as the divulging of what has been confidentially intrusted to them, especially on expeditions, might render the whole project abortive. The slightest deviation from it is very justly considered a breach of honor, as scandalous conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. In official matters the person so offending is liable to the severest punishment and penalty.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of secrecy in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of secrecy in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of secrecy in a Sentence

  1. Benjamin Smith:

    At the moment, we don't have access to any of the data that has been produced. It has' confidentiality' written all over it. It shouldn't, i can not see any reason for secrecy of any form of something that is of such public interest.

  2. Askia Muhammad:

    I gave the original disk to him and in a sense swore myself to secrecy because I had quietly made a copy for myself, it’s my picture, it’s my art, and it’s my intellectual property. I owned it and I wanted to keep it.

  3. New York:

    No one has explained where they’re going and who they are, the Biden administration is systematically spreading the southern border crisis to communities all around the country, often shrouded in secrecy and under the cloak of darkness.

  4. David Albright:

    (Details) should be released because it's undermining the IAEA's credibility, whatever the outcome of the sampling, the secrecy makes it harder to determine whether it's a credible sampling approach.

  5. Karl von Clausewitz:

    The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

secrecy#10000#19348#100000

Translations for secrecy

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"secrecy." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/secrecy>.

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