secret past
Concealed former life
A secret past is a portion of someone's history they've kept hidden from others—typically because it's shameful, criminal, or contradicts their current identity.
The phrase often appears in narratives of revelation: His secret past as a con artist finally caught up with him.
Everyone has things they don't broadcast, but a secret past suggests deliberate concealment of something significant.
- hiddenKept out of sight
- buriedPlaced beneath earth
- buried truthConcealed reality kept hidden
- concealedMade invisible deliberately
- shadowsDark areas from blocked light
skeletons · skeleton in the closet · closet · whispers · shame · confession · deep dive · mystery · forgotten · dark · haunting · lies · cover-up · cover story · revelation · tell all · coming clean · scandal
- backstoryorigin story, origin, background, history, flashback
- plot twistsplot twist, twist ending, surprise ending, unexpected turn, final reveal
- thriller tropesplot twist, red herring, cliffhanger, whodunit, femme fatale
- guiltguilty, guilt trip, guilty conscience, remorseful, contrition
- horror tropesjump scare, final girl, haunted house, masked killer, slasher
- amnesiamemory loss, anterograde amnesia, retrograde amnesia, dissociative amnesia, memory gaps
secret pastopen book
One easily understood
public record · public knowledge · full disclosure · public life · nothing to hide
secret pastopen book
One easily understood
what you see is what you get · nothing to hide · public life
secret, past, secrets, secretly, secrecy, secretive, secretively, secretiveness, secrete