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
Bestreviews, The Mercury News, 6 Feb. 2025
As part of a military parade in Pyongyang in 2023, the North Korean army showed off a variety of civilian box trucks and dump trucks with multiple-launch rocket tubes secreted inside them.
—David Axe, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025
These would measure the amount of fat that his glands secreted on that week’s diet.
—Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025
The body cools itself by circulating hot blood beneath the surface of our skin and secreting a layer of sweat on top.
—Olatunji Osho-Williams, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for secrete 
Dictionary Entries Near secrete
Cite this Entry
“Secrete.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/secrete. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
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