private
confined to particular persons or groups or providing privacy
How often you will meet it
Rank 948 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 19,383 times across 155,370 chapters — 0.009% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 1,000 words, the band worth learning before any other.
What it means
adjective
- confined to particular persons or groups or providing privacy a private placeprivate discussions
- concerning things deeply private and personal also: intimate intimate correspondenceprivate family matters
- concerning one person exclusively also: individual we all have individual carseach room has a private bath
- not expressed also: secret secret (or private) thoughts
noun
- an enlisted man of the lowest rank in the Army or Marines also: buck private, common soldier our prisoner was just a private and knew nothing of value
private in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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Was it in Favoral the private individual?
Other People's Money · Emile Gaboriau · Chapter 1
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I've had good offers from private firms in New York.
The Abandoned Room · Wadsworth Camp · Chapter 1
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At first she disposed of all her little private possessions, then she began to pillage the house.
The Dream · Émile Zola · Chapter 1
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Lost in the smother o’ that wide public stress, In hearts, private hearts, what ties there were snapped!
John Marr and Other Poems · Herman Melville · Chapter 1
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Only once, at the initial performance, did this intelligent creature remember its personality, and drop the public actor in the private individual.
Punch — Volume 99, August 16, 1890 · Various · Chapter 1