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| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | sneaky, secretive |
| Synonyms: | artful, calculating, cautious, circumspect, clandestine, cloaked, conspiratorial, covert, crafty*, creepy*, cunning, disguised, elusive, evasive, foxy, guileful, hidden, hush-hush, insidious, masked, scheming, shifty, skulking, slinking, sly, stealthy, sub-rosa, surreptitious, tricky*, under wraps, under-the-table, undercover, underhand, underhanded, wily |
| Antonyms: | aboveboard, forthright, honest, open, truthful |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | covert |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | clandestine, underhanded |
| Synonyms: | QT, buried, camouflaged, cloaked, concealed, disguised, dissembled, furtive, hidden, hush-hush, incog, incognito, masked, obscured, private, privy, secret, shrouded, stealthy, sub rosa, surreptitious, ulterior, under wraps, under-the-table, undercover, underhand, unsuspected, veiled |
| Notes: | covert (concealed, covered, hidden) is the opposite of overt (apparent, open to view, plain, public) |
| Antonyms: | aboveboard, candid, frank, honest, open, overt, public, unconcealed |
| Main Entry: | deceitful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest, insincere |
| Synonyms: | artful, astucious, astute, beguiling, clandestine, counterfeit, crafty, cunning, deceiving, deceptive, delusive, delusory, designing, disingenuous, double-dealing, duplicitous, fallacious, false, feline, foxy, fraudulent, furtive, guileful, hypocritical, illusory, impostrous, indirect, insidious, knavish, lying, mendacious, misleading, rascal, roguish, shifty, slick, sly, sneaky, stealthy, subtle, treacherous, tricky, two-faced, underhand, underhanded, untrustworthy, untruthful, wily |
| Notes: | deceitful means intended to deceive or cheat while deceptive means causing one to believe what is not true or likely to mislead someone |
| Antonyms: | faithful, frank, honest, loyal, open, sincere, trustworthy, truthful, upright |
| Main Entry: | illicit |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | not legal; forbidden |
| Synonyms: | adulterous, black-market, bootleg, clandestine, contraband, contrary to law, criminal, crooked, dirty*, felonious, furtive, guilty, heavy*, illegal, illegitimate, immoral, improper, in violation of law, lawless, out of line, prohibited, racket, unauthorized, unlawful, unlicensed, wrong, wrongful |
| Notes: | elicit means to call forth emotions, feelings, and responses or to bring out or draw out, while illicit means contrary to or forbidden by law - unlawful literally, illegitimate is 'not lawful' and illicit is 'not allowed' a form of conduct will be illicit and a type of practice will be illegal |
| Antonyms: | blessed, good, legal, legitimate, licit, moral, noble, proper, right |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | mysterious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | secret, concealed |
| Synonyms: | abstruse, alchemistic, arcane, astrological, baffling, cabalistic, covert, cryptic, curious, dark, difficult, enigmatic, enigmatical, equivocal, esoteric, furtive, hidden, impenetrable, incomprehensible, inexplicable, inscrutable, insoluble, magical, mystical, mystifying, necromantic, obscure, occult, oracular, perplexing, puzzling, recondite, secretive, sphinxlike, spiritual, strange, subjective, symbolic, transcendental, uncanny, unfathomable, unknowable, unknown, unnatural, veiled, weird |
| Notes: | mysterious means of an obscure nature, while mystical means having a divine meaning that transcends human understanding |
| Antonyms: | apparent, known, obvious, plain, public, straightforward, tangible, unmysterious |
| Main Entry: | secret |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hidden, unrevealed |
| Synonyms: | abstruse, ambiguous, arcane, backdoor, camouflaged, classified, cloak-and-dagger, close, closet, clouded, conspiratorial, covered, covert, cryptic, dark, deep, disguised, enigmatical, esoteric, furtive, hush-hush, mysterious, mystic, mystical, obscure, occult, on the QT, out-of-the-way, private, recondite, reticent, retired, secluded, shrouded, strange, under wraps, undercover, underground, undisclosed, unenlightened, unfrequented, unintelligible, unknown, unpublished, unseen, veiled |
| Antonyms: | clear, defined, explicit, forthright, honest, open, public, revealed, unconcealed |
| Main Entry: | secret |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | underhand, clandestine |
| Synonyms: | backdoor, backstairs, camouflaged, classified, close, confidential, covert, cryptic, discreet, disguised, dissembled, dissimulated, furtive, hush-hush, in ambush, incognito, inside, restricted, secretive, sly, sneak, sneaky, stealthy, sub-rosa, surreptitious, top secret, unacknowledged, under false pretense, under-the-table, underhanded |
| Antonyms: | aboveboard, known, legal, legitimate, public |
| Main Entry: | secretive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | uncommunicative |
| Synonyms: | backstairs, buttoned up, cagey, clammed up, close, close-mouthed, covert, cryptic, enigmatic, feline, furtive, hushed, in chambers, in privacy, in private, in the background, in the dark, on the QT, reserved, reticent, silent, taciturn, tight-lipped, undercover, unforthcoming, withdrawn, zipped |
| Antonyms: | communicative, forthright, honest, open |
| Main Entry: | shifty |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | deceitful, untrustworthy |
| Synonyms: | cagey, collusive, conniving, contriving, crafty, crooked, cunning, devious, dishonest, dodging, duplicitous, elusive, equivocating, evasive, fly-by-night, foxy, fraudulent, furtive, insidious, lying, mendacious, prevaricative, prevaricatory, roguish, scheming, shady, shrewd, shuffling, slick, slimy*, slippery, sly, sneaky, treacherous, tricky, underhand, unhonest, unprincipled, untruthful, wily |
| Antonyms: | forthright, frank, honest, trustworthy |
* = informal/non-formal usage
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
