as in privately
in a manner intended to prevent knowledge or awareness by others
the girl secretly told her friends about the birthday party so it would be a surprise to the birthday girl
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Recent Examples of secretly
Strong had secretly asked the sound mixer and prop department to prepare a cassette with the song on it and have the boom box in the room.
—
Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 25 Oct. 2025
In an extra surprise, Samantha and Austin turned out to be secretly married the entire time, having privately eloped a month ago.
—Ashlyn Robinette, PEOPLE, 24 Oct. 2025
Russia has secretly built an Arctic undersea surveillance network using Western sonar and fiber-optic technologies acquired through front companies, according to a joint investigation by The Washington Post and international media partners.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025
That comes into play for her when she’s kidnapped by a pair of conspiracy-addled cousins (Plemons and Aidan Delbis), who believe Stone’s character is a member of an alien race that has secretly been pushing Earth toward destruction.
—Joe Reid, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025
And suddenly Aytaç gets wind that Abdi’s been secretly financing this big project for some other guy.
—David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
The potential flaw is another prompt injection attack, where a hacker secretly feeds a malicious prompt to an AI chatbot, which might include loading a dangerous website or viewing a user’s email.
—PC Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
The film follows three kids (Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, and Spencer Locke) who are worried that a neighboring home is secretly a sentient monster.
—Chris Snellgrove, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Oct. 2025
Do Bon Iver and Bonnie Raitt secretly have beef?
—Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 23 Oct. 2025
Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 25 Oct. 2025
In an extra surprise, Samantha and Austin turned out to be secretly married the entire time, having privately eloped a month ago.
—Ashlyn Robinette, PEOPLE, 24 Oct. 2025
Russia has secretly built an Arctic undersea surveillance network using Western sonar and fiber-optic technologies acquired through front companies, according to a joint investigation by The Washington Post and international media partners.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025
That comes into play for her when she’s kidnapped by a pair of conspiracy-addled cousins (Plemons and Aidan Delbis), who believe Stone’s character is a member of an alien race that has secretly been pushing Earth toward destruction.
—Joe Reid, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025
And suddenly Aytaç gets wind that Abdi’s been secretly financing this big project for some other guy.
—David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
The potential flaw is another prompt injection attack, where a hacker secretly feeds a malicious prompt to an AI chatbot, which might include loading a dangerous website or viewing a user’s email.
—PC Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
The film follows three kids (Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, and Spencer Locke) who are worried that a neighboring home is secretly a sentient monster.
—Chris Snellgrove, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Oct. 2025
Do Bon Iver and Bonnie Raitt secretly have beef?
—Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 23 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for secretly
Adverb
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While being held at Bridgewater State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation, DeSalvo was placed in the same ward as George Nassar, who later claimed DeSalvo had privately confessed to being the Boston Strangler.—
Jane LaCroix,
PEOPLE,
27 Oct. 2025
-
The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.—
Peter Aitken,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
The two sides settled confidentially last year and Joyride emerged from bankruptcy.—
Justin Wingerter,
Denver Post,
16 Oct. 2025
-
So these cases are almost always settled confidentially.—
Stayton Bonner,
Robb Report,
24 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Secretly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/secretly. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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