as in exclusive
belonging to only one person, unit, or group and not used by or available to others
The restaurant's proprietary recipe for barbecue sauce is only known to the head chef.
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Recent Examples of proprietary
All of the meats are smoked in house overnight, using the restaurant’s proprietary dry rub recipe.
—
Charlottefive Staff, Charlotte Observer, 1 Aug. 2025
Oakley has also pioneered X Metal, a proprietary material used in high-performance frames.
—Cassell Ferere, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025
The proprietary physical mapping of the thousands of banks inside a typical GDDR board is entirely different from their DDR counterparts.
—ArsTechnica, 14 July 2025
Human experts help train the company’s proprietary AI personas, which companies can leverage to personalize shoppers’ experiences.
—Meghan Hall, Sourcing Journal, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for proprietary
Charlottefive Staff, Charlotte Observer, 1 Aug. 2025
Oakley has also pioneered X Metal, a proprietary material used in high-performance frames.
—Cassell Ferere, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025
The proprietary physical mapping of the thousands of banks inside a typical GDDR board is entirely different from their DDR counterparts.
—ArsTechnica, 14 July 2025
Human experts help train the company’s proprietary AI personas, which companies can leverage to personalize shoppers’ experiences.
—Meghan Hall, Sourcing Journal, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for proprietary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for proprietary
exclusive
Adjective
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Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that's too important to ignore.—
Louryn Strampe,
Wired News,
16 Aug. 2025
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The family was welcomed by staff and presented with an exclusive prize package including a complimentary membership to the Science Center, officials said.—
Stephen Underwood,
Hartford Courant,
16 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Proprietary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/proprietary. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.
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