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

The secret sauce is Bell’s longtime friend Dashiell Driscoll, a comedy writer whose resume includes the After Midnight With Taylor Tomlinson and a run at Funny or Die. —Katie Bain, Billboard, 19 Sep. 2025

Is this the secret sauce, the narrative catnip, that has held viewers in its grip for so long? —Thomas Page, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025

The chef’s secret sauce, literally, is a housemade Thousand Island dressing where ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise are amped up with gochujang, doenjang, tamari, confit garlic, hot sauce and more. —Aly Walansky, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025

Advertisement Advertisement But TikTok’s algorithm, the secret sauce behind its addictiveness and commercial success but also a major point of contention in national security concerns, may remain that of its Chinese parent company. —Chad De Guzman, Time, 17 Sep. 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