secret sauce

noun

: a sauce that adds an important element to a dish and that has ingredients which are typically kept secret

A frank of beef, pork, and veal … is split lengthwise, coated with secret sauce, and cooked on a grill.—

Jane and Michael Stern

called also special sauce

: an element, quality, ability, or practice that makes something or someone successful or distinctive

If leadership has a secret sauce, it may well be humility. A humble boss understands that there are things he doesn't know.—

The Economist

called also special sauce

Examples of secret sauce in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Related Thread is Matter’s secret sauce for a better smart home Apple has used Thread for several years to connect devices to its smart home platform. —

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge, 5 June 2024 Chicken Quesadilla: $9. Tickle Pickle Restaurant: Big Mac Miller (classic cheeseburger slider with secret sauce): $8. —

Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 23 May 2024 Mull: How to answer that without giving up the secret sauce? —

Sam Cohn, Baltimore Sun, 18 Apr. 2024 The organization likely doesn’t have a secret sauce that makes its arms less at risk of breaking down, although a significant portion of the team’s time and resources are put into recovery and managing workloads throughout a grueling 162-game season. —

Jacob Calvin Meyer, Baltimore Sun, 1 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for secret sauce

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'secret sauce.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.