private
[ˈpʰɹaɪ̯vɪt]
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.19 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Belonging or pertaining to an individual person, group of people, or entity that is not the state.
adj
Relating to an individual or group of individuals outside of their official roles; often, sensitive or personal.
adj
Not publicly known or divulged; secret, confidential; (of a message) intended only for a specific person or group.
adj
Protected from view or disturbance by others; secluded; not publicly accessible.
adj
Not in governmental office or employment.
Example Sentences
- "In some countries, healthcare is provided by both the government and private companies."
- "Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16.[…]There are no inspectors, no exams until the age of 18, no school league tables, no private tuition industry, no school uniforms."
- "This book is her private journal."
- "It was a very private thing, they felt, and not to be tossed indiscriminately about."
- "Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet."
- "The identity of the beneficiaries of the trust is private."
Etymology
From Middle English privat(e) (“individual, exclusive, private”), from Latin prīvātus (“bereaved, deprived, set apart from, release”), perfect passive participle of prīvō (“to bereave, deprive, release”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more), from prīvus (“private, one's own, proper”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per; compare prime, prior, pristine. Doublet of privy.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: [ˈpʰɹaɪ̯vɪt]
- British English: [ˈpʰɹaɪ̯vɪt]
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Military.
Inflected Forms
more private (comparative)
most private (superlative)
privates (plural)
privates (present, singular)
privating (participle, present)
privated (participle, past)
privated (past)