top secret

See also: top-secret

English

Adjective

top secret (not comparable)

1. (military, government) Information classified at one of the highest levels of sensitivity by a government, based on an assessment that it would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if disclosed.

   NSA's report on the Liberty incident was originally classified top secret.

2. A level of security clearance needed to access such information.
3. (figuratively) Pertaining to any especially sensitive closed-room activities.

   Steve Jobs set up a top secret team to design the Macintosh.

Alternative forms

• top-secret

Coordinate terms

• classified
• confidential
• restricted
• SCI
• secret
• sensitive
• TSSCI

 

Translations

information classified at the highest level

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 絕對機密／绝对机密 (juéduì jīmì), 絕密／绝密 (zh) (juémì)

• Czech: přísně tajné n
• Dutch: topgeheim (nl)
• Finnish: huippusalainen
• French: ultra-secret (fr), top-secret (fr)
• German: streng geheim
• Greek: άκρως απόρρητο (ákros apórrito)
• Japanese: 極秘 (ja) (gokuhi)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: topphemmelig

• Polish: ściśle tajny m
• Portuguese: ultrassecreto m
• Russian: соверше́нно секре́тный (soveršénno sekrétnyj), совсекре́тный (ru) (sovsekrétnyj) (colloquial)
• Slovak: prísne tajné n
• Spanish: ultrasecreto
• Swedish: kvalhemlig (sv)
• Thai: ลับสุดยอด
• Turkish: çok gizli
• Ukrainian: надсекре́тний (nadsekrétnyj)
• Vietnamese: tối mật (vi)

Noun

top secret (plural top secrets)

1. A secret that is classed as "top secret"; top-secret information.
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see top,‎ secret.

Further reading

• classified information on Wikipedia.Wikipedia