clandestine
adjective
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Psst!—if your first instinct, upon being asked what you’ve been up to, is to clam up, your querier may suspect you’ve been involved in some clandestine activities. Clandestine often substitutes for secret and covert, and it is commonly applied to actions that involve secrecy maintained for an evil, illicit, or unauthorized purpose, as in "clandestine activities pursued under cover of night." It comes to English by way of Middle French, from the Latin word clandestinus, which is itself from the Latin adverb clam, meaning "secretly." Note that this clam is not the ancestor of the English word clam, despite how tightly sealed and thus secretive the bivalves may seem.
Examples of clandestine in a Sentence
Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 1988
The CIA's great innovation has been to concentrate in peacetime on 'covert action'—that is, the use of clandestine means to challenge policies and regimes in other countries.
—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Cycles of American History, 1986
And Pym was in London for a conference—no, he wasn't, he was attending a three-day course on the latest methods of clandestine communication in a beastly little training house off Smith Square.
—John le Carré, A Perfect Spy, 1986
I took a clandestine peek at the price tag on the diamond necklace.
Arkansas Online, 5 June 2025
The only way to pre-empt detection by these IAEA watchdogs would be for Ukraine to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and expel the atomic inspectors, but those moves would amount to trumpeting Kyiv’s clandestine quest to develop a nuclear warhead.
—Kevin Holden Platt, Forbes.com, 1 June 2025
Include a snap-back trigger: if Iran refuses inspectors access to any clandestine facility, all sanctions automatically snap back into place.
—Kazem Kazerounian, Hartford Courant, 29 May 2025
Canadian businessman Stan Bharti last picked up the estate from hospitality mogul Sam Nazarian as part of a clandestine off-market deal in 2011 for $14.5 million, with the property selling in just a week due to the unusual concierge service perks that went with it.
—Wendy Bowman, Robb Report, 28 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for clandestine
Cite this Entry
“Clandestine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clandestine. Accessed 9 Jun. 2025.
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clandestine
adjective
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