# Is a secet a secret if nobody cares?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-secet-a-secret-if-nobody-cares/476585
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 10, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-secet-a-secret-if-nobody-cares/476585 "2008-12-10T18:14:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-secet-a-secret-if-nobody-cares/476585/1 "2008-12-10T18:14:03Z")
This is serious!
Partial defination of “secret”, from m-w:
> [@](#):
>
> 1 a: something kept hidden or unexplained : mystery b: something kept from the knowledge of others
Is that fly speck on my closet ceiling a secret?
Also, is a pebble at the bottom of the Mariana Trench hidden?
In case the question arises unbidden, the answer to the bear poop query is yes, as is the tree noise one.
And the chicken came first because the bible _says_ so.
Peace,
mangeorge
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### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-secet-a-secret-if-nobody-cares/476585/2 "2008-12-10T20:58:45Z")
First we need to define the word secret.
To me a secret is information that has value. The information itself might not be important, or it cold be critically important.
A secret is not necassarily information, it could be a belief in the existance of information.
Without value, information of no interest is not really a secret.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-secet-a-secret-if-nobody-cares/476585/3 "2008-12-10T23:09:55Z")
Remember that scene from _Jurassic Park_?
> [@](#):
>
> JOHNSON! JOHNSON LOOK EVERYBODY! WE GOT JOHNSON HERE!
And he was right. Nobody cared.
And I didn’t care enough to remember if his name was Johnson, or something else.
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### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-secet-a-secret-if-nobody-cares/476585/4 "2008-12-11T01:24:59Z")
Key word is “kept”. There must be intent involved in the hiding or making mysterious of whatever is the secret. It’s not secret if it’s merely unknown or undiscovered (although the word is sometimes used in this sense).
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### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-secet-a-secret-if-nobody-cares/476585/5 "2008-12-11T01:28:35Z")
Based on the thread title, I would have to say that a ‘secet’ is _not_ a ‘secret’. No, not the same at all.