Information that is hidden and not told to others; things kept private or confidential.
From Old French 'secret,' from Latin 'secretus' meaning 'separated' or 'hidden,' from 'secernere' (to separate or distinguish). The word originally meant something set apart or hidden away.
Humans are the only animals obsessed with keeping secrets—other species hide food or mates, but only humans create abstract information they must conceal, which is why the word is central to literature, psychology, and how we understand consciousness itself.
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