Other forms: coverts
Covert means done in secret, with nobody outside meant to know it is happening. A covert operation, a covert glance across the room, a camera hidden inside a smoke alarm.
It belongs to the language of spies, police and journalism: covert surveillance, covert funding, a covert recording. Learn it together with its opposite, overt — overt racism is said out loud, covert racism hides inside the rules. Covertly is the adverb. Two pronunciations run side by side, the older KUV-ert and the newer KOH-vert, pulled into line with overt. Hunters use covert as a noun as well, for the thicket where game shelters.
1adjectivecovertKept secret and hidden from anyone not part of it.
“The unit ran a covert operation for two years.”
formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
synonyms: secret, clandestine, undercover
2adjectivestatedNot stated openly; showing through hints rather than words.
“There was covert criticism in everything he said about her work.”
formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
3nounthicketA thicket of low trees and bushes where game shelters.
“The dogs flushed a pheasant out of the covert.”
COVERT → it stays COVERed, out of sight
It stays covered, and covered things stay out of sight.
hooks ontocover
Covert is the Old French past participle of covrir, to cover, so a covert thing is a covered thing and cover is its close relative. It reached English through Middle English covert, matching Latin coopertus. Despite the modern habit of saying KOH-vert to rhyme it with overt, the two are not close family.
Latin
coopertus
Old French
covert
Middle English
covert
English, today
covert
Built from
From Middle English covert, from Old French covert, past participle of covrir (“to cover”) (corresponding to Latin coopertus); cognate to cover. Not closely related to overt, despite what the most common pronunciation would suggest.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA