best-kept secret

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Something that is supposed to be secret but is actually widely known.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Điều gì đó được cho là bí mật nhưng thực tế là được biết rộng rãi

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a secret that is kept best
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The new restaurant is the best-kept secret in town.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “best-kept secret” mean?

Something that is supposed to be secret but is actually widely known. Literally: a secret that is kept best

Is “best-kept secret” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.