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
The companies that grow fastest in the next decade may be those capable of building proprietary participation systems people actively want to join.
—
Felicity Fellows, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
Most culture is streamed inside apps that lock their consumption data in a black box, report whichever proprietary metric flatters them most, and refuse to be audited or to convert their stats into anything that can be compared with those of any competitor.
—Lane Brown, Vulture, 15 May 2026
The parrot has since moved from Auteuil’s head to a perch on his shoulder, nibbling at his ear with complete proprietary confidence.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 14 May 2026
Statista has applied its own proprietary scoring to derive the final ranking positions; therefore, the ranking does not represent a direct reproduction of The Upright Project's raw data output.
—Time Staff, Time, 12 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for proprietary
Felicity Fellows, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
Most culture is streamed inside apps that lock their consumption data in a black box, report whichever proprietary metric flatters them most, and refuse to be audited or to convert their stats into anything that can be compared with those of any competitor.
—Lane Brown, Vulture, 15 May 2026
The parrot has since moved from Auteuil’s head to a perch on his shoulder, nibbling at his ear with complete proprietary confidence.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 14 May 2026
Statista has applied its own proprietary scoring to derive the final ranking positions; therefore, the ranking does not represent a direct reproduction of The Upright Project's raw data output.
—Time Staff, Time, 12 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for proprietary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for proprietary
exclusive
Adjective
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Join our exclusive webinar on May 28, featuring tech leaders from Orange, Mars, Reckitt, and Saint-Gobain.—
Darlene Superville,
Fortune,
24 May 2026
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Guests of the hotel will also have exclusive access to a fitness center, the entrance of which is next to the spa.—
R. Christian Smith,
Chicago Tribune,
24 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Proprietary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/proprietary. Accessed 28 May. 2026.
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