| Meaning | Secret or hidden / hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed. |
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| Examples | - "covert actions by the CIA"
- "covert funding for the rebels"
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| Narrower | backstair, backstairs, furtive | Secret and sly or sordid |
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| black | (of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading |
| clandestine, cloak-and-dagger, hole-and-corner, hugger-mugger, hush-hush, secret, surreptitious, undercover, underground | Conducted with or marked by hidden / hidden aims or methods |
| cloaked, disguised, masked | Having its true character concealed with the intent of misleading |
| collusive, conniving | Acting together in secret toward a fraudulent or illegal end |
| secret | indulging only covertly |
| secret | Communicated covertly |
| sub-rosa, under-the-table, behind-the-scenes | designed and carried out secretly or confidentially |
| subterranean, subterraneous, ulterior | lying beyond what is openly revealed or avowed (especially being kept in the background or deliberately concealed) |
| under wraps | Kept secret |
| undisclosed, unrevealed | not made known |
| See also | concealed | hidden on any grounds for any motive |
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| implicit, inexplicit | Implied though not directly expressed |
| invisible, unseeable | impossible or nearly impossible to see |
| Opposite | overt, open | open and observable |
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| Spanish | disimulado, encubierto |
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| Nouns | covertness | the state of being covert and hidden / hidden |
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| Adverbs | covertly | in a covert manner |
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