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PlainSpell

secrete

/sɪˈkɹiːt/verb

secrete is spelled S-E-C-R-E-T-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,703rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “secret vs secrete” about 70 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, secrete means “To extract a substance from blood, sap, or similar to produce and emit waste for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in secrete?

Letters7: S-E-C-R-E-T-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 40,703rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is secrete?

Secrete appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,703rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce secrete?

  • /sɪˈkɹiːt/
  • /səˈkɹiːt/

Secrete has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-secrete.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with secrete

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

excrete vs secrete20 B
secret vs secrete70 G

Also written: secret.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of secrete

  • secretes present, singular, he/she/it
  • secreting participle, present
  • secreted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does secrete mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To extract a substance from blood, sap, or similar to produce and emit waste for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function.

  2. 2

    To exude or yield.

    If you won’t believe my great new doctrine (which, by the bye, is as old as the Greeks), that souls secrete their bodies, as snails do shells, you will remain in outer darkness.

  3. 3

    To conceal.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleterareSeparated; discrete.

    […] they ſuppoſing Two other Divine Hypoſtaſes Superiour thereunto, which were perfectly Secrete from Matter. […] This ſo containeth all things, as not being yet ſecrete and diſtinct; whereas in the Second they are diſcerned and diſtinguiſh

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Secrete in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsécréter, excréter ((''transitive'') produce by secretion), celer, cacher (to conceal), dérober, enlever (to steal)
Germanausscheiden, aussondern, absondern, sezernieren ((''transitive'') produce by secretion)
Portuguesesecretar ((''transitive'') produce by secretion), segredar (to conceal)
Spanishsecretar, segregar ((''transitive'') produce by secretion), secretear (to conceal)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does secrete come from?

First directly attested in 1728; attested as the past-participial adjective secreted in 1707: from Latin sēcrētus, perfect passive participle of sēcernō (“to separate”); reinforced by back-formation from secretion; compare secern; cognate with French sécréter and the Spanish secretar.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after secrete