Meaning & use
privy
Having private knowledge of something, especially information that is shared with only a few people.
See it in a sentence
As the CEO's assistant, she was privy to details of the merger months before the announcement.
Only a handful of officials were privy to the classified negotiations.
A note on using this word
Privy almost always appears in the fixed phrase 'privy to,' followed by the information someone has access to; it rarely stands alone as an adjective.
Words with a similar meaning
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
Another way to use it
2. noun
An outdoor toilet, typically a small shed built over a pit, common before indoor plumbing.
The old farmhouse still had a wooden privy standing at the edge of the yard.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “privy”, then compare your use with the examples above.