secret sauce

noun

1

: 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

2

: 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

Integrating properties so folks can easily move between housing, work, and play seems to be the secret sauce. —Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 16 Oct. 2025

The Hatch Canyon Burger is filled with Hatch green chiles, American cheese, onion rings and a secret sauce on a toasted bun. —Carlos Rico, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Oct. 2025

That was a lot of the secret sauce. —Lisa Lockwood, Footwear News, 16 Oct. 2025

The secret sauce that goes into the holiday going off without a hitch? —Tabitha Parent, PEOPLE, 14 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for secret sauce

• albatross
• applesauce
• barabbas
• helios
• kshatriyas
• across
• backcross
• crisscross
• lacrosse
• recross
• tomas
• blas