student asking question

As an adjective, what's the main difference between "classified" and "secret?"

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Classified" is most often used in the government context to refer to information that is officially secret and can only be accessed by a small, select number of people. "Secret" is much more general in meaning and can be used in a variety of contexts. Ex: I have some secret information about my boss. Ex: Up until recently, the US government kept information about UFOs and aliens as classified information.

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