Etimology
From Latin prīvātus (“bereaved, deprived, set apart from, release”), perfect passive participle of prīvō (“I bereave, deprive, release”), from prīvus (“private, one's own, peculiar”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per; compare prime, prior, pristine. Doublet of privy.
adjective
private (comparative more private, superlative most private)
Belonging or pertaining to an individual person, group of people, or entity that is not the state.
Relating to an individual or group of individuals outside of their official roles; often, sensitive or personal.
Not publicly known or divulged; secret, confidential; (of a message) intended only for a specific person or group.
Protected from view or disturbance by others; secluded; not publicly accessible.
Not in governmental office or employment.
Secretive; reserved.
(finance) Not traded by the public.
Of a room in a medical facility, not shared with another patient.
(UK, of schools) Financially reliant on fees rather than government funding.
(not comparable, object-oriented programming) Accessible only to the class itself or instances of it, and not to other classes or even subclasses.
(philosophy) Of the mind or language, not in principle experienceable, knowable, or understandable by others.
Examples
In some countries, healthcare is provided by both the government and private companies.
Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. […] There are no inspectors, no exams until the age of 18, no school league tables, no private tuition industry, no school uniforms.
This book is her private journal.
It was a very private thing, they felt, and not to be tossed indiscriminately about.
Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
The identity of the beneficiaries of the trust is private.
The key point in the original article was that the relationship with the woman, named “Colette,” came to light because Aupetit had sent a private letter meant for her to his secretary instead.
Can we go somewhere more private?
I invited him to take breakfast with me; he accepted the invitation, and told me he would tell me about himself when we were in a more private place.
Military secrets should not be entrusted to unreliable private individuals.
He is a very private person.
private equity
Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
Antonyms: public, published
Related words
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "generally"): public
hyponyms
package-private
noun
private (plural privates)
A soldier of the lowest rank in the army.
A doctor working in privately rather than publicly funded health care.
(euphemistic, in the plural) The genitals.
(obsolete) A secret message; a personal unofficial communication.
(obsolete) Personal interest; particular business.
(obsolete) Privacy; retirement.
(obsolete) One not invested with a public office.
(usually in the plural) A private lesson.
Examples
In the cities and towns of California, privates are pressuring county governments to close or reduce in size their hospitals and to pay private hospitals for the care of low-income patients. Thus everything is stacked against public hospitals.
Because you are already moving people with the limitations of what we did in 1982 on the capping of Medicare, you are finding out that the privates are picking up that slack, […]
The Count Meloone, a Noble Lord of France,Whose priuate with me of the Dolphines loue,s much more generall, then these lines import.
Nor must I be unmindful of my private.
Go off, I diſcard you: let me enioy my priuate: go off.
And what haue Kings, that Priuates haue not too, […]
If you want to learn ballet, consider taking privates.
Related words
synonyms
(genitals): bits, private parts
verb
private (third-person singular simple present privates, present participle privating, simple past and past participle privated)
(Internet, transitive) To make something hidden from the public (without deleting it permanently).
Examples
During these negotiations, however, the Kleins say that Hosseinzadeh issued a copyright takedown for the video — even after it had already been privated.
Shay has also since briefly returned to social media, making a quick post on Instagram. His account was privated following his scandal in February and his Twitter remains inactive.
"[…] IOI had no part in privating the subreddit, this was entirely the decision of the moderators, and we are just fellow fans like you who volunteer our time to help out," a moderator wrote.
“Must be hard being a one-hit wonder,” a follower negged me once. “Actually, yes,” I joked in a now-privated video response. “Thank you for noticing.”