privy
privy Lexical Profile
privy Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Sharing in the knowledge of something secret or private (usually followed by 'to').
"Only a few senior executives were privy to the details of the upcoming merger."
Hidden, secret, or private; belonging to a person's private or official capacity rather than public state affairs (now chiefly archaic or in historical titles such as Privy Council).
"The monarch appointed several trusted advisors to serve on the Privy Council."
• noun
A toilet located in a small shed or outbuilding outside a house or other main building; an outhouse.
"The historic nineteenth-century farmhouse still had a wooden privy at the back of the property."
In law, a person having a direct part or legal interest in an action, contract, transaction, or property.
"The court ruled that the judgment was binding both on the original parties to the contract and on their legal privies."
Word Nuance & Usage
In modern English, the adjective sense meaning 'sharing in the knowledge of' is used almost exclusively predicatively and followed by the preposition 'to' (e.g., 'privy to the negotiations').
• Rhymes for privy
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Middle English from Old French 'prive' (intimate, private, secret), from Latin 'privatus' (withdrawn from public life, belonging to an individual).
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.