Other forms: revealed, reveals, revealing
To reveal something is to let it be seen or known when it was hidden before. The sheet comes off and reveals the new sign, a scan reveals a crack in the bone, someone finally reveals who called the papers.
You reveal a secret, a name, a plan, a result. The noun that belongs with it is revelation, both the thing revealed and the jolt of suddenly understanding: the second half was a revelation. Television and marketing use reveal itself as a noun, as in the big reveal at the end of the episode. Revealing describes anything that shows more than was intended, a remark or a dress alike. It sits a step above show in formality, so a drawer does not reveal your socks.
1verbrevealTo make known something that was secret or unknown.
“He refused to reveal who had paid for the trip.”
2verbuncoverTo uncover something so that it can be seen.
“They pulled off the dust sheet to reveal a piano.”
3verbshowTo show a fact or quality that was not obvious.
“The scan revealed a hairline crack in the bone.”
4nounmomentThe moment at which something hidden is shown, in television and marketing.
“The whole episode builds towards the reveal at the end.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Reveal is Latin revelare: re-, back, plus velare, to cover, from velum, a cloth, curtain, veil, awning or sail. To reveal is to pull the cloth back off the thing. English helped itself to that same velum twice more, in veil and in unveil, so the covering and the uncovering are the same word wearing different clothes.
Latin
revēlāre — to reveal, uncover
Old French
reveler
Middle English
revelen
English, today
reveal
Built from
From Middle English revelen, from Old French reveler, from Latin revēlāre (“to reveal, uncover”), from re- (“back, again”) + vēlāre (“to cover”), from vēlum (“a cloth, covering, curtain, veil, awning, sail”) (whence also English veil, English unveil, English voile, Russian вуаль, Russian завуали́ровать (“to veil”) (compare typologically)). Also compare typologically uncloak, dismantle, divest, invest, unmask, разобла́чать (akin to облаче́ние, срыва́ть покро́вы (покро́в (“cover, covering”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA