Reveal

How to spell reveal

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce reveal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reveal mean?

1. verbTo make something previously hidden or secret known or visible.
2. nounA moment of disclosure, especially the dramatic showing of something previously hidden.

Reveal in a sentence

• verb

  The audit will reveal exactly where the money went.

• noun

  The show saved its biggest reveal for the final episode.

• verb

  She did not want to reveal her new address to anyone at work.

• noun

  Guests cheered at the colourful reveal of the baby's gender.

Where does reveal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin revelare, which literally meant 'to draw back the veil', built from the prefix re-, signalling reversal or undoing, and velare, 'to cover or to veil', itself from velum, the Latin word for a 'veil' or 'sail'. The image is therefore very physical: to reveal something is to pull off the cloth that hid it. English took the word in during the 1300s by way of Old French reveler, at first in religious contexts about divine truths being disclosed to people. Over time the sense broadened to any kind of disclosure, from showing a hidden object to making a secret known. The same velum root survives in the modern English word 'veil', which is a handy reminder that the middle of reveal carries the idea of an uncovered covering.

How the word is built

• re- (back, undo)
• veal (from Latin velare: to cover or veil)