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
Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 8 Apr. 2025
To check whether tumor cells were secreting something that primed the lungs to host them, Altea-Manzano and colleagues grew pieces of mouse mammary tumor in a dish, then collected the liquid containing all the cellular secretions.
—Amber Dance, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Apr. 2025
Scientific inquiries reveal that cockroaches secrete powerful antimicrobial peptides capable of neutralizing dangerous bacteria like MRSA and E. coli.
—Scott Travers, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2025
Daniele Bianchi, an assistant professor in UCLA’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, has been studying what causes this normally benign plankton species to start secreting lethal toxins.
—Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 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 25 Apr. 2025.
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