Confidentiality

How to spell confidentiality

15 letters · 7 syllables

How to pronounce confidentiality

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does confidentiality mean?

1. nounThe state of keeping private information secret and not disclosing it to others.

Confidentiality in a sentence

• The contract included a strict confidentiality clause about client data.

• Medical staff are bound by patient confidentiality at all times.

Where does confidentiality come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb fidere, meaning 'to trust', which gave rise to the adjective confidens, 'trusting fully' or 'sure'. The sense of placing private trust in someone runs right through its family: a confidant is a person you trust with secrets, and confidence is the firm trust you feel. English took 'confidential' in the 1700s to describe matters spoken or written in trust, and the abstract noun 'confidentiality' was built on top of it to name the quality or state of being kept private. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle, where 'den-ti-al' is pronounced loosely and the 'ti' actually sounds like 'sh', so writers must remember the buried '-ti-' before '-ality'. Keeping the Latin fid ('trust') in mind anchors the whole word and explains why secrets and trust have always sat at its heart.

How the word is built

• con- (with, together)
• fid (trust, from Latin fidere)
• -ent (adjective ending)
• -ial (relating to)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix)