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Synonym Chooser

How is the word furtive distinct from other similar adjectives?

Some common synonyms of furtive are clandestine, covert, secret, stealthy, surreptitious, and underhanded. While all these words mean "done without attracting observation," furtive implies a sly or cautious stealthiness.

lovers exchanging furtive glances

When would clandestine be a good substitute for furtive?

In some situations, the words clandestine and furtive are roughly equivalent. However, clandestine implies secrecy usually for an evil, illicit, or unauthorized purpose and often emphasizes the fear of being discovered.

a clandestine meeting of conspirators

When could covert be used to replace furtive?

The words covert and furtive can be used in similar contexts, but covert stresses the fact of not being open or declared.

covert intelligence operations

When is secret a more appropriate choice than furtive?

While in some cases nearly identical to furtive, secret implies concealment on any grounds for any motive.

met at a secret location

When can stealthy be used instead of furtive?

While the synonyms stealthy and furtive are close in meaning, stealthy suggests taking pains to avoid being seen or heard especially in some misdoing.

the stealthy step of a burglar

In what contexts can surreptitious take the place of furtive?

Although the words surreptitious and furtive have much in common, surreptitious applies to action or behavior done secretly often with skillful avoidance of detection and in violation of custom, law, or authority.

the surreptitious stockpiling of weapons

When might underhanded be a better fit than furtive?

The words underhanded and furtive are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, underhanded stresses fraud or deception.

an underhanded trick

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of furtive Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research. Cyril Labbé, The Conversation, 31 Jan. 2025 Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research, undermining the literature that everyone from doctors to engineers rely on to make decisions about human lives. Guillaume Cabanac, The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2025 At home, the atmosphere was decorous, curious, gentle; outside, the culture of the nineteen-fifties was tougher, valorizing war and papering over a darker, more furtive kind of violence. Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2025 The secret-weapon character who makes the more haunting impression is Agnes, whose chignon hides a rebellious spirit underneath — as well as a furtive romance with the stable boy, Isak (Malte Gårdinger). Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 24 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for furtive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for furtive
Adjective
  • Gates has three ecosystems on her quarter-acre: a sunny front yard, a shady back plot and a small wetland garden on one side.
    USA Today, USA Today, 16 May 2025
  • The fear this instills in I-Jing — already ignored by her busy mother, nor attended to by her mercurial older sister, I-Ann, who holds a grudge against her mother and rebels by working at a shady betel nut stand — sets off a secrets-unearthing chain of events.
    Ritesh Mehta, IndieWire, 14 May 2025
Adjective
  • Tired of using bulky night vision goggles for your clandestine nocturnal activities?
    Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 22 May 2025
  • The fiery combination of Mars trine Venus sparks things up in your clandestine 12th house of secrets and eighth house of intimate affairs.
    Valerie Mesa, People.com, 22 May 2025
Adjective
  • Based on the memoir of a real doctor, the stories and tribulations feel achingly real, and Whishaw's sly smile and tongue-in-cheek delivery keeps the depressing stories from becoming too morose.
    Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 8 May 2025
  • Meanwhile, Adebayo has continued to support Wilson with sly social media posts.
    Jordana Comiter, People.com, 26 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Another key difference is how stealthy the malware is.
    Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 20 May 2025
  • These devices must be hardened against attackers seeking stealthy persistence.
    Yuriy Bulygin, Forbes.com, 15 May 2025
Adjective
  • That includes Tom Cruise, as covert CIA division agent Ethan Hunt, riding a motorcycle off a 4,000-foot cliff and BASE jumping the final 500 feet of a ravine, or the breathless climactic train mayhem in 2023’s Dead Reckoning, the opening installment of this two-parter.
    David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 14 May 2025
  • In an opinion piece published by the Venezuelan independent newspaper La Razón, former lawmaker Omar González Moreno recounted the covert mission that freed him and four others without a single shot being fired.
    Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 12 May 2025
Adjective
  • Upgrade to some new bags that hold a sneaky amount of stuff and look great doing it.
    Sara Coughlin, SELF, 19 May 2025
  • From sneaky ways to get her grandkids outside to turning tiny household tasks into exciting activities, here are the nostalgic summer things your Southern grandma would use to entertain and delight on a trip to her house.
    Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 17 May 2025
Adjective
  • Samuel French, a Texas actor on the rise who portrayed the undercover FBI agent CJ Robinson in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, has died.
    Mike Barnes, HollywoodReporter, 12 May 2025
  • Pisano has been with the show since his 2021 debut as undercover officer Detective Joe Velasco.
    KiMi Robinson, USA Today, 8 May 2025
Adjective
  • By associating vibes with AI, doing so is an outrageous and shifty means of subliminally implying that AI is mysterious, perhaps bordering on possessing sentience.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 5 May 2025
  • And the staff lined up just to say goodbye / Tiny tear in his shifty little eye.
    George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Furtive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/furtive. Accessed 27 May. 2025.

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