secretly

secretly — adverb

1. doing something without letting other people see, hear, or know about it

1.adverbB1
Definition

doing something without letting other people see, hear, or know about it

Example

Sari secretly baked a cake for her sister's birthday party.

secretly + verb for hidden action

Hamza secretly saved money each month to buy his mother a gift.

secretly + verb + purpose clause

Common collocations
  • secretly hoped
  • secretly planned
  • secretly watched
  • secretly admired
  • secretly met
Synonyms
  • privately

    focuses on personal space or confidentiality rather than deliberate hiding

  • covertly

    more formal, often used for official, military, or police operations

  • quietly

    broader meaning — can mean without sound rather than without knowledge

Antonyms
  • openly

    doing something in full view, with nothing hidden

  • publicly

    in a way that everyone can see or know

Grammar Patterns

secretly + verb

verb + secretly

secretly + [clause] at sentence start

Usage Note

Secretly usually comes right before the main verb, but it can also appear at the start of a sentence to emphasise that the hidden quality applies to the whole situation (e.g., 'Secretly, Antonia was thrilled about the news.').

Common Mistakes

Megan secretly told everyone about the surprise.
Megan quietly told one friend about the surprise.
If many people know, the action is no longer hidden; 'secretly' only works when the information or action stays hidden from most people.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adverb/1

All four describe actions that are not fully visible to others, but they differ in tone and context. Privately focuses on personal space or confidentiality rather than deliberate hiding — you can have a private conversation in a coffee shop corner where people can see you but not hear you. Covertly is more formal and carries a sense of official secrecy, often used in military or intelligence contexts (e.g., 'The agent covertly monitored the building'). Quietly is the broadest of the group: it can mean without noise ('slipped quietly out of the room'), without attracting attention ('quietly went about her work'), or even just gently. In secret is a phrase that overlaps closely with secretly but often describes an ongoing arrangement (meeting in secret) rather than a single hidden action. For everyday situations — hiding a surprise or concealing a feeling — secretly is the most natural choice.

privately ↗covertlyquietly ↗in secret

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • secretly in love with
  • secretly recorded
  • secretly working on

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Secretly comes from the Latin word secretus, meaning 'separated' or 'hidden.' English borrowed it through Old French secret, and the suffix -ly was added to the adjective secret to form this adverb. The word has carried the idea of 'kept hidden from view or knowledge' for over 600 years.