Did you know?
If you guessed that the secret to the origins of secrete is the word secret, you are correct. Secrete developed in the mid-18th century as an alteration of a now obsolete verb secret. That verb had the meaning now carried by secrete and derived from the familiar noun secret ("something kept hidden or unexplained"). The noun, in turn, traces back to the Latin secretus, the past participle of the verb secernere, meaning "to separate" or "to distinguish." Incidentally, there is an earlier and distinct verb secrete with the more scientific meaning "to form and give off (a secretion)." That secrete is a back-formation from secretion, another word that can be traced back to secernere.
Examples of secrete in a Sentence
Paul McClure 14, New Atlas, 14 May 2025
The tree secretes gum arabic—a tasteless, nontoxic, pale-white or orange-brown sap that may be harvested at the end of the rainy season in sub-Saharan Africa.
—Erik Zou, JSTOR Daily, 25 Apr. 2025
Majority Don’t Approve Of Trump’s Handling Of Inflation, Border And Trade
The symptoms of perimenopause result from the levels of estrogen and progesterone being secreted by your ovaries progressively dropping over time.
—Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes.com, 27 Apr. 2025
In some parts of the world, a person may be secreted away or imprisoned by the government without any advanced notification of wrongdoing or chance to make a defense.
—Andrea Seielstad, The Conversation, 22 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for secrete
Cite this Entry
“Secrete.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/secrete. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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