Secretly

How to spell secretly

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce secretly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does secretly mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is hidden or kept from the knowledge of others.

Secretly in a sentence

• She secretly saved money each month to cover the surprise holiday.

• The two firms secretly agreed to fix their prices before the audit.

Where does secretly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word builds on 'secret', which English took in the 1300s from Old French 'secret', itself from the Latin 'secretus', meaning 'set apart' or 'hidden away'. That Latin form was the past participle of 'secernere', 'to separate or sift apart', made from 'se-' (apart) and 'cernere' (to sift or distinguish), the same root that gives us 'discern' and 'concern'. The literal idea was of something separated from common view, which slid naturally into the sense of knowledge kept from others. The adverb 'secretly' was formed inside English by adding the native '-ly' ending, and because the base word ends in a plain 't' the spelling simply stacks '-ly' onto 'secret' with no doubled letters, which is the small detail to fix in memory.

How the word is built

• secret (from Latin secretus: set apart, hidden)
• -ly (adverb suffix)