Words / S / General

surreptitious

adjective/ˌsʌrəpˈtɪʃəs/

B2CEFR level
45/100Rarity: uncommon
FormalRegister

Done quietly and stealthily to avoid being noticed.

She stole a surreptitious glance at his notes while he was distracted.

Similar: stealthy, furtive, clandestine

Origin: From Latin surreptitius, from surripere 'to snatch secretly'.

Topic: secrecy in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

Get words like surreptitious on your lock screen, a few a day, with review that makes them stick.

Download on the App Store Lexfall puts a new word on your home and lock screen through widgets, so you learn without opening an app. Free to download. After a free trial, a subscription unlocks every field. Built for iPhone, iOS 15.1 or later.
QR code that opens Lexfall on the App Store
On a computer?Scan with your iPhone camera.

More general words: secrecy