private

Less common meanings

10. 10
    adjective

    Inclined to keep one's thoughts and feelings to oneself; reserved.

    Deeply private, he shared almost nothing about his past.

    Her private nature made interviews uncomfortable for her.

    Similarreserved, reticent, retiring, secretive, introverted

    Oppositeopen, outgoing, forthcoming, extroverted

11. 11
    genitalsnouncolloquialeuphemisticplural

    In the plural (privates), a polite or indirect word for the genitals.

    The doctor asked him to point to where his privates hurt.

    She wrapped the toddler in a towel to cover his privates.

    UsagePolite and a little coy, suited to doctors' visits and talk with children: he hurt his privates.

    Similargenitals, genitalia, crotch

    Note

    It is a polite, slightly coy choice common in casual speech and in talking with children, where anatomical terms feel too clinical. Because privates is also the plural of the army rank and of other nouns, the surrounding sentence usually has to make clear which is meant.

12. 12
    hide onlineverbtransitive

    To hide something posted online, such as a video or an account, from public view without permanently deleting it.

    After the backlash, the influencer privated his account and stayed offline for a month.

    You can private a playlist so that nobody else can see what you've been listening to.

    UsageSpelled privated, privating. People also set a video or account to private.

    Similarhide

    Note

    An internet-era verb made straight from the adjective, used of videos, accounts and whole subreddits. Privating is the reversible step short of deletion: the content still exists, but the public can no longer see it. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Making content private preserves it, restricts public access, and can be reversed. support.google.com
13. 13
    class-only (code)adjective

    Of a class member: accessible only to the class itself and its instances, not to other classes or even subclasses.

    Marking the field private prevents other classes from modifying it directly.

    The method was declared private, so code in other classes could not call it.

    Oppositepublic

    Note

    Programmers use it as an access modifier, the strictest of the usual levels. A private field or method can normally be reached only from inside its own class and that class's instances. Unlike protected members, it stays hidden even from subclasses, which is how encapsulation is enforced. Its opposite is public, and the adjective is not comparable here: nothing is more private than private. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Private is an access modifier and the most restrictive usual access level. learn.microsoft.com
    • The rule needs qualification by language. C++ permits friends to access private members; Java also permits access by nested classes. Subclass status alone does not grant access. eel.is
    • Restricting access to private members supports encapsulation. docs.oracle.com
14. 14
    nouncountable

    A private-sector health-care provider, such as a doctor or hospital, as opposed to a publicly run one, usually in the plural (the privates).

    Note

    The noun stands in for a private doctor or hospital in health-policy talk, where it is set against public provision. It mostly appears in the plural, the privates, naming private-sector providers as a group, and only the context shows whether doctors or hospitals are meant. It is the language of policy debate.

15. 15
    nounobsolete

    Privacy; the state of being alone and withdrawn from other people's company.

    Go off, I diſcard you: let me enioy my priuate: go off.

    c. 1601, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”

    Note

    The condition rather than the person: being out of public view, used where modern English says privacy. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1623), a speaker sends company away with 'let me enjoy my private,' claiming solitude almost as a possession. It suits deliberate period color. Elsewhere it will read as a slip for privacy. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The noun private historically meant privacy or retirement. en.wiktionary.org
    • Shakespeare's authorship is correct; c. 1601–1602 is a composition date. Under the required first-publication convention, the date is 1623. hcmc.uvic.ca
    • A character asks company to leave with the quoted words. folger.edu
16. 16
    inner (mind)adjective

    Of the mind or of language, not experienceable or knowable by others, even in principle.

    Philosophers debate whether sensations are wholly private to the one who feels them.

    The argument denies that any meaning could be entirely private to a single speaker.

    Oppositepublic

    Note

    Philosophy sharpens everyday secrecy into a claim about what is possible. A private sensation or meaning is not merely unshared but unshareable, open in principle to no one but its owner. The sense is central to Wittgenstein's private-language argument, which asks whether a language that only one speaker could ever understand makes sense at all. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The philosophical sense concerns privacy in principle: sensations or meanings conceived as inaccessible to anyone but their owner, rather than merely unshared. plato.stanford.edu
    • This sense is central to Wittgenstein's private-language argument, which examines whether a language comprehensible in principle only to its originating speaker is possible or intelligible. plato.stanford.edu
17. 17
    nounobsolete

    An ordinary individual who holds no public office.

    Note

    The person who holds no office, set against kings and magistrates. Shakespeare's Henry V asks 'what have kings that privates have not too,' pairing the two halves of society. The noun has fallen away, but the idea survives in the adjective for those outside government and in the phrase private citizen. It should not be confused with the army rank. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The noun private denoted someone without public office. en.wiktionary.org
    • Henry V was written by Shakespeare. shakespearedocumented.folger.edu
    • 1599 is a composition/performance date; the first edition was published in 1600. shakespearedocumented.folger.edu
    • The play contains the quoted question contrasting kings and privates. folger.edu
18. 18
    nounobsolete

    A confidential message, or a personal communication outside official channels.

    The Count Meloone, a Noble Lord of France, Whose priuate with me of the Dolphines loue, s much more generall, then these lines import.

    c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”

    Note

    One of several noun uses found in Shakespeare's English that have since disappeared. In Shakespeare's King John (1623), Salisbury describes the Count Meloone's 'private with me': a confidential word passed outside official channels, set against what the written lines of a letter say. The noun follows a possessive, and the spelling priuate is simply the period's u for v. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • William Shakespeare wrote King John. gutenberg.org
    • King John was first published in 1623. Approximately 1596 is an estimated composition date. folger.edu
    • The phrase 'private with me' refers to Count Meloone's communication; Salisbury speaks the line. folger.edu
    • The noun denotes a confidential, unofficial communication. en.wiktionary.org
    • The noun follows a possessive, and its original spelling here is 'priuate'. gutenberg.org
    • The spelling 'priuate' reflects the period's use of medial u where modern spelling has v. folger.edu
19. 19
    nounobsolete

    One's personal interest or particular business.

    Nor must I be unmindful of my private.

    1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy

    Note

    Here the old noun means one's own stake, as opposed to the common good. Ben Jonson's Catiline His Conspiracy (1611) has the line 'Nor must I be unmindful of my private,' naming self-interest with the adjective turned noun. Like the obsolete 'secret message' noun, it belongs to period writing. In modern prose, say private interests or personal affairs instead. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The old noun 'private' means one's personal interest or particular business, contrasted with public interests. en.wiktionary.org
    • Ben Jonson wrote Catiline His Conspiracy, first published in 1611. emed.folger.edu
    • Catiline His Conspiracy contains 'Nor must I be unmindful of my private,' using 'private' as a noun for personal interests. hollowaypages.com
    • 'Private' also has an obsolete noun sense meaning a secret message. en.wiktionary.org