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 Stern 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

That is the secret sauce of the Harlem Children's Zone. —Jon Lapook, CBS News, 21 June 2026

That’s the secret sauce, what people take away from the Camino. —Judy Koutsky, Forbes.com, 14 June 2026

Conglomerates need a secret sauce to turn two and two into five. —Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 11 June 2026

Disclosure Day is majestic, unnerving, and more than little wacky, though its pure unhinged quality is probably its secret sauce. —Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 9 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for secret sauce

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