privacy

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
17
Words With Friends
19
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ˈpɹɪv.ə.si/
See all 4 pronunciations
/ˈpɹɪv.ə.si/ · /ˈpɹaɪ.və.si/ · /ˈpɹɪvəsɪj/ · /ˈpɹɑjvəsɪj/

Definition of privacy

7 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (uncountable)The state of being secluded from the presence, sight, or knowledge of others.
    “I need my privacy, so please stay out of my room.”
    “Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,[…]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.”
    “It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both sides of a middle aisle, has had its day.”
See all 7 definitions

noun

  1. (uncountable)The state of being secluded from the presence, sight, or knowledge of others.
    “I need my privacy, so please stay out of my room.”
    “Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,[…]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.”
    “It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both sides of a middle aisle, has had its day.”
  2. (uncountable)Freedom from unwanted or undue disturbance of one's private life.
    “It takes a village to rob one of a sense of privacy.”
  3. (uncountable)Freedom from damaging publicity, public scrutiny, surveillance, and disclosure of personal information, usually by a government or a private organization.
    “Privacy is assumed by many to be among common-law rights.”
  4. (countable, obsolete)A place of seclusion.
  5. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A relationship between parties seen as being a result of their mutual interest or participation in a given transaction, contract etc.
  6. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Secrecy.
  7. (countable, obsolete)A private matter.
    “It ſeems more probable that Ovid vvas either the Confident of ſome other paſſion, or that he had ſtumbled by ſome inadvertency, upon the privacies of Livia, and ſeen her in a Bath: […]”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From private + -cy.

Find your best play with privacy

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes privacy, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.