Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Confidential |
ConfidentialAdjective1. Entrusted with private information and the confidence of another; "a confidential secretary". 2. (of information) given in confidence or in secret; "closet information"; "this arrangement must be kept confidential"; "their secret communications". 3. Denoting confidence or intimacy; "a confidential approach"; "in confidential tone of voice". 4. The level of official classification for documents next above restricted and below secret; available only to persons authorized to see documents so classified. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "confidential" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Etymology: Confidential \Con`fi*den"tial\, adjective. [Compare to the French expression confidentiel.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Military | See security classification. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Classified information is data which, for one reason or another, has been deemed to require certain security measures to protect the range of its disclosure. Often, the viewing of such information by an individual requires that the person undergo a background check; after this is satisfactorily completed, he or she is then issued a security clearance.It is often the case that sensitive information is disseminated on the basis of a need to know, which is to say if an individual needs to know certain information in order to satisfactorily perform her or his function in the organization, their viewing of that information is authorized, otherwise it is not.
Such information is called "classified" because it falls into a certain classification of sensitivity. This sort of hierarchical system is used by virtually every national government, and by many corporations as well. The United States government, for example, has a formal hierarchy of classification for sensitive data:
Classified U.S. government documents are required to be stamped with their classification at the top and bottom of each page, and there are various other regulations for the handling and storage of such documents.
- Top secret – this is the highest security level, and is defined as information which would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if disclosed to the public. This classification is most often subdivided on the basis of "need to know", and includes such information as the design of cutting-edge weaponry, etc.
- Secret – the second highest classification may include, for example, details of other security measures and procedures. It is defined as information which would cause "serious damage" to national security if disclosed.
- Confidential – is the lowest classification level. It is defined as information which would "damage" national security if disclosed.
- Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU) – data which is not related to national security but whose disclosure to the public could cause some harm; such data includes personal demographic information from recent censuses, for example.
- Unclassified – not technically a "classification", this is the default, and refers to information that is not sensitive and can be freely disclosed to the public. Information which was previously classified under one of the above levels is often declared "unclassified" at a certain time because its age has made its classification no longer necessary.
The classification scheme of course varies between organizations; for example, in Canada information which the U.S. would classify SBU is called "protected," and further subcategorized into levels A, B, and C.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Classified information."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| conf. | English | Confidential | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: ConfidentialSynonyms: closet(a) (adj), secret (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Concealment | Irrevealable, inviolable; confidential; esoteric; not to be spoken of; unmentionable. |
Secret | Confidential; top secret. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Campus Confidential (1968) College Girl Confidential (1968) Free Love Confidential (1968) Mail Order Confidential (1968) Suburban Confidential (1966) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Marbury v. Madison | 1803 | The conclusion from this reasoning is, that where the heads of departments are the political or confidential agents of the executive, merely to execute the will of the President, or rather to act in cases in which the executive possesses a constitutional or legal discretion, nothing can be more perfectly clear than that their acts are only politically examinable. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | They had been as confidential with each other as they could be, but this had not gone very far beyond their names |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Test results are confidential. (references) | |
Participation in the roster and in specific research projects is voluntary and confidential. (references) | ||
Women who enroll in this program are given educational materials on pre-conception planning and perinatal care and are asked to provide information about the health of their children (this information is kept confidential). (references) | ||
Business | All information and data obtained are confidential and will be used only for the purposes for which gathered. (references) | |
As most of the information that these institutions have on the internet is public and not confidential, they have not been concerned with confidentiality or international hackers. (references) | ||
While the major players in the value-added services market are keeping their market trend information confidential, the products and services provided reflect the consumption needs of the Lithuanians. (references) | ||
Children | Uruguay | INAME also operates a confidential hot line for children who are victims of domestic abuse. (references) |
Netherlands | The Government also maintains a popular hot line for children and a network of pediatricians who track suspected cases of child abuse on a confidential basis. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Seychelles | Regar officials argued that providing officials with the letter would violate their right to keep sources confidential. (references) |
Economic History | Nigeria | This report is confidential and is available only to the requesting U.S. company. (references) |
Colombia | The Andean Community decision on patent and trademark protection also provides for protection of confidential industrial information. (references) | |
Nigeria | These are business confidential products tailored to the U.S. company's product/service whose final results are not available to the public. (references) | |
Human Rights | Japan | Prison rules remain confidential. (references) |
Tunisia | The Higher Commission submits confidential reports directly to President Ben Ali. (references) | |
Russia | The ICRC carried out regular prison visits, but by agreement with the Government, the ICRC's findings were kept confidential. (references) | |
Political Economy | CHILE | Protection for confidential data provided to patent and health authorities is inadequate. (references) |
PHILIPPINES | Trade Secrets: While there are no codified rules on the protection of trade secrets, Philippine officials assert that existing civil and criminal statutes protect trade secrets and confidential information. (references) | |
ARGENTINA | However, the new patent regime does not provide patent protection for products under development, does not adequately protect confidential data, and contains ambiguous language on parallel imports and compulsory licenses. (references) | |
Political Rights | Tunisia | A presidentially appointed election monitoring group presented a confidential report to the President regarding the election process, which reportedly substantiated numerous irregularities alleged by opposition parties. (references) |
Fiji | However, despite a constitutional provision requiring that any party which receives more than 10 percent of the seats in Parliament be offered inclusion in Cabinet, Qarase formed a Government that excluded Mahendra Chaudhry's Fiji Labor Party (FLP). Chaudhry subsequently took legal action against Qarase; the case was scheduled to be heard in February 2002. Concerns still exist regarding the police investigation regarding the takeover of Parliament in May 2000. The Public Service Commission conducted a confidential investigation of the Police Commissioner's possible involvement in the takeover of Parliament that was completed in September 2000 and cleared him of involvement. (references) | |
Travel | Russia | Reports have been received indicating that confidential credit, financial, banking and medical information has been supplied to organized crime gangs. (references) |
Women | Malawi | In April an NGO in Lilongwe established the country's first confidential shelter for women who are victims of physical or sexual abuse. (references) |
Japan | Many local governments were responding positively to a need for confidential assistance by establishing special women's consultation departments in police and prefectural offices. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Ukraine | Under the law, names and addresses of victims of crimes can be kept confidential if they request protection due to fear for their lives. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | The result of the confidential inquiries made into the condition and prospects of the newly declared Texan Government will be communicated to you in the course of the session. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | You have the right to keep your medical records confidential. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Confidential" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 95.91% of the time. "Confidential" is used about 1,124 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 95.91% | 1,078 | 6,975 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.91% | 44 | 51,500 |
| Noun (common) | 0.18% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,124 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "confidential": confidential agent ♦ confidential clerk ♦ confidential communication ♦ Confidential creditors ♦ Confidential debts ♦ confidential information ♦ confidential report ♦ confidential secretary ♦ exploitation of knowledge of confidential information ♦ highly confidential ♦ strictly confidential. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "confidential": non-confidential. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "confidential"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | sekret (hidden, privity, secret, undercover), intim, i fshehtë (backdoor, clandestine, close, colorable, colourable, cryptic, dark, deep, deep-seated, elfish, elvish, esoteric, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, insidious, internal, latent, occult, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, secret, secretive, sly, stealthy, subterranean, under the counter, under the table, under wraps, undercover, underhand, underhanded, unearthly, veiled), i besuar (credible, entrusting, faithful, responsible, trust, trustworthy, trusty). (various references) | |
Arabic | سري (clandestine, classified, close, closet, covert, cryptic, discreet, furtive, hugger mugger, hush hush, inmost, low key, mysterious, mystic, occult, off the record, private, privy, sacramental, secret, slinking, stealthy, subterranean, surreptitious, umbilical, undercover, underground, underhand), خصوصي (characteristic, exclusive, individual, particular, peculiar, personal, private, special, specific). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | таен (arcane, backdoor, clandestine, cryptic, dark, darkling, esoteric, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hush hush, inside, mystic, occult, private, privy, recondite, secret, sensitive, sneaking, snug, surreptitious, undercover, underground, underhand), поверителен (classified, esoteric, hush hush, occult, private, privileged, privy, restricted, secret), доверчив (credulous, reliant, trustful, unsuspecting), доверен (fiduciary, sure). (various references) | |
Chinese | 机要, 密 (close, dense, secret, thick). (various references) | |
Czech | tajný (clandestine, classified, furtive, hole-and-corner, inward, occult, privy, restricted, retired, secret, sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover, underhand, underhanded, unspoken), dùvìrný (close, esoteric, familiar, hail-fellow-well-met, home, hush hush, intimate, off the record, private, restricted, sensitive). (various references) | |
Danish | fortroligt. (various references) | |
Dutch | vertrouwelijk, geheim (secret). (various references) | |
Esperanto | konfidenca. (various references) | |
Finnish | salassa pidettävä, salainen (clandestine, concealed, hidden, secret, underhand), luottamuksellinen, kahdenkeskinen. (various references) | |
French | confidentiel. (various references) | |
German | vertraulich (close, confidentially, familiar, familiarly, friendly, intimate, intimately, Matey, pally, private, privately, tete a tete). (various references) | |
Greek | εμπιστευτικόσ, εμπιστευτικός (in confidence), απόρρητοσ (esoteric). (various references) | |
Hebrew | סו"י (clandestine, classified, hush hush, privy, secret, under cover, under wraps). (various references) | |
Hungarian | titkos (clandestine, classified, covert, cryptic, esoteric, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hugger-mugger, hush hush, inner, lurky, mystic, occult, privy, secret, sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious, top secret, undercover), bizalmas (chummy, colloquial, confidant, confidante, counsellor, discrete, familiar, gossiping, internal, intimate, low down, near, private, shirt-sleeve, shirttail, thick, trusted). (various references) | |
Indonesian | rahasia (covert, privy, secret, undercover). (various references) | |
Italian | confidenziale (familiar, friendly, private), riservato (booked, classified, close, coy, discreet, distant, engaged, offish, private, reserved, retiring, secret, secretive, standoffish, undemonstrative, undercover), riservatissimo, fiducioso (assured, confident, secure, trustful), famigliare (colloquial, tete a tete). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 親展 , 直披 (personal), 内々 (family circle, informal, private, secret, the inside), 内内 (family circle, informal, private, secret, the inside), 内分 (secret), 丸秘 (classified, secret). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ないない (family circle, informal, private, secret, the inside), ないぶ" (private, secret), し"て" (development, expansion, extension, progress), まるひ (classified, secret), うちうち (family circle, informal, private, secret, the inside), じきひ (personal), ちょくひ (personal). (various references) | |
Korean | 은밀한 (Clandestine, Covert, furtive). (various references) | |
Manx | folliaghtagh (classified, esoteric, mysterious, secret, secretive, stealthy). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | onfidentialcay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | confidencial (auricular, classified, private, tete-a-tete), secreto (arcane, backdoor, blind, classified, close, cryptic, deep, hole-and-corner, inmost, inner, occult, offscreen, private, privy, sealed, secret, secretive, sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover, underhanded, under-the-table), reservado (aloof, box, cagey, chilly, close, closet, demure, distant, exclusive, freezing, incommunicative, long run, non-committal, offish, particular, qualified, repulsive, reserved, reticent, retiring, secretive, self-contained, separate, shy, special, stand-off, stand-offish, taciturn, unamenable, uncommunicative, undemonstrative), particular (cabinet, closet, especial, individual, inmost, intimate, particular, peculiar, personal, private, privy, separate, special, specific, tete-a-tete), de confiança (bosom, reliable, sound, staunch, trusty, truthful), íntimo (acquainted, chummy, depth, familiar, internal, intimate, near, offscreen, secret, thorough, warm). (various references) | |
Romanian | confidenţial (confidentially, private, privately, secret), secret (arcanum, close, cover, covertly, hidden, hugger mugger, internal, mysterious, mystery, occult, private, privy, quiet, reticence, secrecy, secret, secretly, ulterior, underground, undisclosed, unspoken, untold). (various references) | |
Russian | секретный (classified, hole-and-corner, secret, subterranean, under wraps, undercover), конфиденциальный (tete a tete), пользующийся доверием, доверяющий. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | tajan (clandestine, hugger mugger, secret, stilly, surreptitious), prisan (cheek by jowl, close, fast, hail fellow, inner, intimate, strait), poverljiv (cloak-and-dagger, entrusting, tete a tete, trustful, trusting). (various references) | |
Spanish | confidencial (inside, private). (various references) | |
Swedish | förtrogen (confidant, conversant, familiar, familiar with, intimate). (various references) | |
Turkish | gizli (arcane, back door, blind, camera, clandestine, classified, closet, concealed, covert, cryptic, cryptical, crypto-, disguised, esoteric, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, huggermugger, hush hush, inner, intimate, latent, masked, occult, perdu, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, restricted, sealed, secluded, secret, secretly, slinky, sneaking, sneakingly, sneaky, snug, stealthy, sub rosa, submerged, submersed, subterranean, subterraneous, surreptitious, ulterior, under cover, underarm, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded, undisclosed, unsearchable, unseen), güvenilir (above suspicion, authentic, bankable, calculable, certain, credible, creditable, dependable, gilt-edged, regular, reliable, responsible, right hand, secure, solid, sound, stalwart, stanch, staunch, straight, sure, tried, trustworthy, trusty, unfailing, unsuspicious, worthy of credit), güven veren (faithful), emin (assured, bailee, certain, clear, cocksure, confident, deliberate, fiduciary, firm, good, in the bag, proof, reliable, responsible, safe, secure, sound, stanch, staunch, sure, trustworthy, trusty, unfaltering). (various references) | |
Turkmen | ynanjaс (trusting). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | секретний (back room, classified, hole-and-corner, hush hush, private, privy, secret, sensitive, subterraneous, underhand, underneath), конфіденційний (fiduciary), довірливий (confident, credent, credulous, gullible, trustful, unsuspecting). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tâm sự đặc vụ thư ký riêng, tâm phúc; được tin cẩn thổ lộ tâm tình, kín (backstairs, hush-hush, inward, inwards, tight, unapparent), bí mật; nói riêng với nhau thân tín. (various references) | |
Welsh | cyfrinachol (private, secret). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "confidential": confidentialities, confidentiality, confidentially. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "confidential": nonconfidential. (additional references) | |
| |
"Confidential" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: confidenial, confidentail, confidental, confidentia, confidentiel, confidentual. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "confidential" (pronounced kÄ'nfude"nshul or kÄ'nfude"nkhul) |
| 7 | -u d e" n sh u l | nonresidential. |
| 6 | -d e" n sh u l | jurisprudential. |
| 5 | -e" n sh u l | essential, experiential, potential, quintessential. |
| 4 | -n sh u l | financial, interprovincial, nonfinancial, provincial. |
| 3 | -sh u l | inertial, antisocial, artificial, beneficial, biracial, bushel, commercial, controversial, crucial, facial, glacial, impartial, spatial, special, superficial, infomercial, initial, interracial, judicial, Marshal, Marshall, martial, multiracial, noncommercial, noncontroversial, nonracial, official, palatial, partial, Paschal, prejudicial, prenuptial, racial, sacrificial, social, uncontroversial, unofficial. |
| 7 | -u d e" n kh u l | credential, presidential, providential, residential. |
| 6 | -d e" n kh u l | prudential. |
| 5 | -e" n kh u l | consequential, deferential, differential, existential, exponential, inconsequential, tangential, influential, nonessential, preferential, reverential, sequential, torrential. |
| 4 | -n kh u l | circumstantial, substantial, insubstantial. |
| 3 | -kh u l | bestial, celestial, hatchel, nuptial. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-e-f-i-i-l-n-n-o-t" | |
-1 letter: declination. | |
-2 letters: confidante, incidental, inflection. | |
-3 letters: anticline, clintonia, clonidine, coalified, confidant, confident, conflated, contained, deflation, defoliant, dictional, falconine, fictional, identical, incondite, infantile, infection, inflation, inflicted, lidocaine, lineation. | |
-4 letters: actinide, actinoid, alcidine, anointed, anticold, antilife, antinode, canfield, cantoned, catenoid, ciliated, confined, conflate, conidial, conidian, ctenidia, daltonic, deifical, delation, dentinal, diatonic, dilation, diolefin, falconet, filiated, financed. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-d-e-f-i-i-l-n-n-o-t" | |
+2 letters: confidentially. | |
+3 letters: confidentiality, nonconfidential. | |
+5 letters: confidentialities. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Historic 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Speeches 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Abbreviations 15. Acronyms 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
