buried secrets

Interred private knowledge

Buried secrets are hidden truths deliberately concealed from others, often for years or decades.

The metaphor suggests something interred underground—out of sight but not destroyed, capable of being unearthed.

Buried secrets typically involve shame, scandal, or past wrongdoing: The investigation uncovered buried secrets about the company's founding.

They carry an implicit threat of eventual discovery.

Related

forgotten · whispers · skeletons · closet · dirty laundry · unearthed · darkness · lies · truth · digging · silence · shame · past · crypts · covered · cover up · swept under the rug · skeleton in the closet

Categories
Opposites
concealment vs. disclosure

buried secretspublic knowledge

Facts anyone can access

open secrets · full disclosure · confessions · public record · open admissions

accessibility of information

buried secretscommon knowledge

Widely shared information

open books · public announcements · headline news

temporal status of truth

buried secretsreckoning

Settlement of accounts

truth and reconciliation · coming clean · breaking news · historical record · collective memory

Family

buried, secrets, buries, burying, burial, burials, secret, secrecy, secretive

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Negative · Everyday, not technical · Rated PG