as in privately
in a manner intended to prevent knowledge or awareness by others
the girl secretly told her friends about the birthday party so it would be a surprise to the birthday girl
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Recent Examples of secretly
However, Jimmy discovers that Michael was secretly selling the voice and likeness of clients to AI companies without their consent and uses that revelation to blackmail him into stepping down.
—
Anthony Robledo, USA Today, 29 May 2026
Sun also pleaded guilty to charges that accused him of secretly working for China and was sentenced this year to four years in prison.
—Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2026
The mother evoked the experience of an earlier victim of O’Connor’s crimes, in that her daughter was also subjected to O’Connor’s harassment and attempts to secretly keep communicating with the girl even after the mother expressly asked her to stop.
—Robert Salonga, Mercury News, 28 May 2026
The wealthy founders of the Boroughs, Blaine (Seth Numrich) and Anneliese (Alice Kremelburg), along with a small group of elites, secretly maintain a parasitic relationship with the town’s elderly inhabitants.
—Dani Di Placido, Forbes.com, 28 May 2026
The complaint alleges that in September 2023, a male student secretly recorded the plaintiff performing oral sex at the baseball field dugout on the Bella Vista campus in Fair Oaks.
—Sacbee.com, 28 May 2026
Kurt's key takeaways Apple devices are not secretly recording your conversations all day.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 26 May 2026
Clapton, meanwhile, had secretly fallen for Boyd years earlier, which led to a complicated dynamic that would later become the stuff of rock legend, with Clapton even penning songs about her.
—Virginia Chamlee, PEOPLE, 25 May 2026
But at home, there’s distance between Art and his wife, Judy (Alfre Woodard), who’s secretly having an affair with their next-door neighbor Jack (Bill Pullman), and the tension between the pair drives their arc over the season’s eight episodes.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 25 May 2026
Anthony Robledo, USA Today, 29 May 2026
Sun also pleaded guilty to charges that accused him of secretly working for China and was sentenced this year to four years in prison.
—Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2026
The mother evoked the experience of an earlier victim of O’Connor’s crimes, in that her daughter was also subjected to O’Connor’s harassment and attempts to secretly keep communicating with the girl even after the mother expressly asked her to stop.
—Robert Salonga, Mercury News, 28 May 2026
The wealthy founders of the Boroughs, Blaine (Seth Numrich) and Anneliese (Alice Kremelburg), along with a small group of elites, secretly maintain a parasitic relationship with the town’s elderly inhabitants.
—Dani Di Placido, Forbes.com, 28 May 2026
The complaint alleges that in September 2023, a male student secretly recorded the plaintiff performing oral sex at the baseball field dugout on the Bella Vista campus in Fair Oaks.
—Sacbee.com, 28 May 2026
Kurt's key takeaways Apple devices are not secretly recording your conversations all day.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 26 May 2026
Clapton, meanwhile, had secretly fallen for Boyd years earlier, which led to a complicated dynamic that would later become the stuff of rock legend, with Clapton even penning songs about her.
—Virginia Chamlee, PEOPLE, 25 May 2026
But at home, there’s distance between Art and his wife, Judy (Alfre Woodard), who’s secretly having an affair with their next-door neighbor Jack (Bill Pullman), and the tension between the pair drives their arc over the season’s eight episodes.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 25 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for secretly
Adverb
-
The controversy has sparked concerns for leaders across Lake County, and various officials have publicly and privately begun distancing themselves from the project.—
Joseph States,
Chicago Tribune,
5 June 2026
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Tesla has lost arbitration proceedings in some cases and privately settled others while publicly denying wrongdoing.—
Bloomberg,
Mercury News,
4 June 2026
Adverb
-
After Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation last week, and then confidentially filed S-1 draft to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, using company stock in exchange for housing has likely only perked more employees’ ears.—
Jacqueline Munis,
Fortune,
7 June 2026
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Anthropic, known for its family of large language models called Claude, confidentially filed its IPO prospectus on Monday.—
Morgan Chittum,
CNBC,
6 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Secretly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/secretly. Accessed 9 Jun. 2026.
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