Private

How to spell private

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce private

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does private mean?

1. adjectiveBelonging to or intended for a particular person or group, not open to the public.
2. nounA soldier of the lowest rank in the army.

Private in a sentence

• adjective

  The letter was marked private and confidential.

• noun

  He enlisted and served two years as a private before any promotion.

• adjective

  They held the meeting in a private room at the back of the restaurant.

• noun

  The sergeant ordered the private to clean the equipment.

Where does private come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin privatus, meaning 'withdrawn from public life' or 'belonging to oneself', which was the past participle of the verb privare, 'to deprive, to set apart'. The underlying root is privus, meaning 'single, individual, one's own', so the original idea was something separated off from the shared public sphere. English borrowed it in the late 1300s, at first describing matters not open to the general public; the military sense of a 'private soldier', one of no particular rank holding no public office, grew from the same notion of being an ordinary individual. The same root survives in relatives like 'privilege' (literally a law for one person) and 'deprive'. The spelling stays close to the Latin, with the silent-feeling second syllable reduced to a schwa, which is the small trap when writing it.

How the word is built

• priv- (from privatus: set apart, belonging to oneself)
• -ate (adjective suffix)