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

Advertisement Sharing user data — The data that Google collects on its users is part of the secret sauce of its search engine. —Billy Perrigo, Time, 29 Aug. 2025

There seems to be a secret sauce to the Miami Dolphins offense that nobody has seen, or tasted yet. —Omar Kelly august 29, Miami Herald, 29 Aug. 2025

Emotional intelligence is the secret sauce to getting ahead, both at work and in life. —Tessa West, CNBC, 29 Aug. 2025

Andersen says that only about 5% of revenues come from biochar sales, but that these sales are the secret sauce powering the enterprise. —Erik Kobayashi-Solomon, Forbes.com, 28 Aug. 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