What's the difference between covert and secret?

Covert


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Covered over; private; hid; secret; disguised.
  • (v. t.) Sheltered; not open or exposed; retired; protected; as, a covert nook.
  • (v. t.) Under cover, authority or protection; as, a feme covert, a married woman who is considered as being under the protection and control of her husband.
  • (a.) A place that covers and protects; a shelter; a defense.
  • (a.) One of the special feathers covering the bases of the quills of the wings and tail of a bird. See Illust. of Bird.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Roshan was the latest victim in what is widely seen as a covert war against the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.
  • (2) Subsequent studies have demonstrated covert face recognition using behavioural tasks.
  • (3) His reports alleged active, sustained and covert collusion to subvert the election which, if confirmed, could constitute treason.
  • (4) The bill, intended to increase and update intelligence agency powers, would create a new framework for covert operations involving conduct that would otherwise breach criminal law.
  • (5) Somehow, despite all this, the Obama administration thinks it can “destroy” Isis, though, as the Post noted , the US government has not been able to destroy al-Qaida or any terrorist group in the last decade “through two wars, thousands of drone strikes and hundreds of covert operations around the world.” The only question now is how far this Forever War against Isis goes.
  • (6) Boko Haram spies spread the rumour that she refused to covert from Christianity to Islam.
  • (7) In general, the two studies show that qualitative characteristics of completely covert generations influence their impact on estimates of the frequency of external events.
  • (8) The drug subculture, the addict's family, and a methadone clinic all covertly elicit and reinforce this transformation maintained by the myth that the addict's is "out of control".
  • (9) A series of experiments were conducted on three severe prosopagnosic patients in an attempt to understand better this phenomenon known as covert face recognition, the conditions for its occurrence, and its functional locus.
  • (10) "Instead of actually fighting a conventional war, western powers and their allies appear to be relying on covert war tactics to try to delay and degrade Iran's nuclear advancement," Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis told Associated Press.
  • (11) The repurposing of the devices of unwitting users in foreign jurisdictions for covert attacks in the interests of one country’s national priorities is a dangerous precedent – contrary to international norms, and in violation of widespread domestic laws prohibiting the unauthorised use of computing and networked systems,” they conclude.
  • (12) Investigations mostly failed to show overt or covert face recognition, but NR performed at an above-chance level in selecting the familiar face on a task requiring a forced-choice between a familiar and an unfamiliar face.
  • (13) The covert self-evaluations were assumed to represent at internalization of early experiences of predominantly positive or negative social reinforcement from adult socializing agents.
  • (14) Richy Thompson, director of public affairs and policy at the British Humanist Association, welcomed the study, but said covert online access to abortion pills wasn’t enough.
  • (15) At the same time, by achieving a state of misery through following her mother's orders, she exposed her as ridiculous, and thus covertly discharged considerable aggression.
  • (16) Covert and overt depression was as frequent in the hysterectomized group as in the control group.
  • (17) The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said at Smith's tribunal that it believed some of the information held by the covert organisation and accessible to companies that subscribed to the service "could only have been supplied by the police or the security services".
  • (18) We now report that enhancement of calcium current in the peptidergic bag cell neurons of Aplysia by protein kinase C occurs through a different mechanism, the recruitment of a previously covert class of calcium channel.
  • (19) After all, the most basic freedom of all is the freedom to walk the streets unharmed and to sleep safe in our beds at night.” Parliament will soon debate the government’s first national security legislation bill to expand the powers of intelligence agencies and criminalise disclosure by any person of covert “special intelligence agencies”.
  • (20) It recommended that all radio communications taking place during undercover firearms operations should be recorded and covert armed response vehicles should be fitted with in-car data-recording systems.

Secret


Definition:

  • (a.) Hidden; concealed; as, secret treasure; secret plans; a secret vow.
  • (a.) Withdraw from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
  • (a.) Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive.
  • (a.) Separate; distinct.
  • (a.) Something studiously concealed; a thing kept from general knowledge; what is not revealed, or not to be revealed.
  • (a.) A thing not discovered; what is unknown or unexplained; a mystery.
  • (a.) The parts which modesty and propriety require to be concealed; the genital organs.
  • (v. t.) To keep secret.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In the absence of atrial dilatation there was minimal stimulus for ANF secretion.
  • (2) We have previously shown that serotonin is present in secretory granules of frog adrenochromaffin cells; concurrently, we have demonstrated that serotonin is a potent stimulator of corticosterone and aldosterone secretion by adrenocortical cells.
  • (3) We have investigated a physiological role of endogenous insulin on exocrine pancreatic secretion stimulated by a liquid meal as well as exogenous secretin and cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8) in conscious rats.
  • (4) To examine the central nervous system regulation of duodenal bicarbonate secretion, an animal model was developed that allowed cerebroventricular and intravenous injections as well as collection of duodenal perfusates in awake, freely moving rats.
  • (5) The present study was therefore carried out to specify further which type of adrenoceptor is involved in lithium-induced hyperglycaemia and inhibition of insulin secretion.
  • (6) Significant increases in acid secretion were observed without changes in cyclic nucleotides.
  • (7) In summary, GABAergic tone did not effect basal acid secretion in anesthetized rats.
  • (8) The effects of glucagon-induced insulin secretion upon this lipid regulation are discussed that may resolve conflicting reports in the literature are resolved.
  • (9) Since the advance and return of sperm inside the tubes could facilitate the interaction of sperm with secretions participating in its maturation, the persistent infertility after vasectomy could be related to the contractile alteration that follows the excessive tubal distention.
  • (10) This suggests that a physiological mechanism exists which can increase the barrier pressure to gastrooesophageal reflux during periods of active secretion of the stomach, as occurs in digestion.
  • (11) "They wanted to pass it almost like a secret negotiation," she said.
  • (12) The secretion of GH as measured by increased plasma level, in response to oral administration of 500 mg L-dopa or 30 min-infusion of arginine, was not modified by prior intravenous administration of 200 micrograms GH-releasing hormone (GHRH).
  • (13) Short incubations with heparin (5 min) caused a release of the enzyme into the media, while longer incubations caused a 2-8-fold increase in net lipoprotein lipase secretion which was maximal after 2-16 h depending on cell type, and persisted for 24 h. The effect of heparin was dose-dependent and specific (it was not duplicated by other glycosaminoglycans).
  • (14) This experimental system allows separation of three B lymphocyte developmental stages: early differentiation in vitro, progression to IgM secretion in vivo, and late differentiation dependent upon mature T lymphocytes in vivo.
  • (15) These results provide evidence that trait selection can change gonadotrophin receptor concentration and the dynamics of hormone secretion during the oestrous cycle of the mouse.
  • (16) Caries-related bacteriological and biochemical factors were studied in 12 persons with low and 11 persons with normal salivary-secretion rates before and after a four-week period of frequent mouthrinses with 10% sorbitol solution (adaptation period).
  • (17) The sites of action for somatostatin and epinephrine to inhibit insulin secretion have been reported to be exclusively in the exocytotic pathway.
  • (18) Since intracellular Ca2+ seems to play a role in stimulus-secretion coupling and ion movements, several aspects of Ca2+ homeostasis have been investigated in CF.
  • (19) The Metoclopramide-induced secretion of prolactin and aldosterone was blunted in 6 patients pretreated with 200 mg ibopamine.
  • (20) On the basis of obtained data on the uniformity of chemical compounds of the secretion of glands belonging to different groups their common origin has been suggested.