divulge
To tell someone a secret.
- No matter how much they begged, Aisha refused to divulge where the treasure was hidden.
- A good magician will never divulge the secret of a trick, however nicely you ask.
Similar: reveal, tell, share
divulge or reveal?
Divulge is only ever telling a secret. Reveal can be telling or showing.
Both words are about something hidden coming out, so children swap them freely. But reveal can do something divulge never can.
Divulge is always about information, and usually information that was meant to stay private. If your best friend refuses to divulge what she has bought you for your birthday, she is keeping a secret. You divulge by talking, never by pulling back a cover.
Reveal is broader. You can reveal a secret, but you can also reveal a thing. A magician whips away a cloth to reveal a rabbit, and the tide goes out to reveal rock pools on the beach. Neither of those could be divulged, because nobody is telling anything.
Both words, side by side
reveal
To show or tell something that was hidden.
- She pulled back the curtain to reveal a garden full of sunflowers.
- The magician refused to reveal how the trick was done, however much we begged.
Similar: show, uncover, expose
Why it costs marks
Cloze questions often test this. If the sentence is about a curtain, a cloth or the tide, only reveal will do. Divulge suits a gap about secrets and information, and choosing it for a physical object is a common slip.
Definitions and example sentences on this page are the ones a child sees inside Wordrealm, taken from our list of over 1,100 words. It is free to browse, with nothing to sign up for.
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test