surreptitious
/ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/
surreptitious means stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements). It carries an Arena rating of 1694, earned across 12 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, surreptitious ranks #156 of 42,747 for Qualifying, #742 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #767 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,259 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
surreptitious is pronounced /ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/.
Why “surreptitious” is a great word
Done or obtained by stealth, avoiding notice through quiet, careful movements. From the Latin surreptīcius (“furtive, clandestine”), from surrēpō (“to creep along, steal”), itself from sub- (“under”) + rēpō (“to creep”), first recorded in English in the mid-15th century. Unlike “clandestine,” which implies the systematic concealment of an illicit enterprise, or “furtive,” which suggests guilt-flashed anxiety in a glance, surreptitious focuses on the stealthy mechanics of the act itself—the pencil-tap of a note passed beneath a desk, the slow draw of a drawer left ajar, the silent scroll of a message erased before the screen dims. It is the poetry of the minor trespass, performed just outside the circle of light, a testament to the universal human art of attempting invisibility while remaining entirely, hopelessly corporeal.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin surrēptīcius (“furtive, clandestine”), from surrēpō (“to creep along”).
adj
- Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements).e.g.“He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.” — 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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