How to Use clandestine in a Sentence

clandestine

adjective
  • I took a clandestine peek at the price tag on the diamond necklace.
  • The traitor can of course cause all kinds of clandestine havoc here.
    — Aaron Zimmerman, Ars Technica, 10 Aug. 2019
  • Many of those missing are buried in clandestine graves all across the country.
    — Geraldine Castro, WIRED, 1 Nov. 2024
  • Because its work was so clandestine, most people didn’t know about it.
    — NBC News, 2 Mar. 2021
  • As such, teams have long pursued more clandestine means of sign-stealing.
    — Steven Goldman, Slate Magazine, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Their actions declared war on alumni and were done in a clandestine way.
    — Victor Ashe, National Review, 28 May 2021
  • And those unlucky enough to fail to find the clandestine bugs still receive a collectible.
    — Ben Weiss, Fortune Crypto, 24 Mar. 2023
  • There’s a clandestine quality to it all.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Yes, its signage and entryway are on the clandestine side.
    — Josh Miller, Southern Living, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Veracruz has been the scene of some of the largest clandestine burial pits in recent years.
    — FÉlix MÁrquez, Star Tribune, 18 Feb. 2021
  • For the wine lover, fall excursions are a clandestine delight.
    — Amplified Content Studio, Mercury News, 24 Nov. 2025
  • But as is often the case in clandestine transactions, cash appears to have been king.
    — Joshua Goodman, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2022
  • The group had grown since its clandestine days into a key force in Catalan culture.
    — New York Times, 4 May 2021
  • The video sees the two stars at a clandestine perreo party inside a dark building in Madrid.
    — Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 7 Dec. 2023
  • What a clever and clandestine way to welcome a prospective hire to Chicago!
    — Dan Wiederer, chicagotribune.com, 25 Jan. 2022
  • Leone was the editor of a clandestine paper and was never home.
    — Abhrajyoti Chakraborty, The New Republic, 5 Aug. 2019
  • For Fawzi, the trip to identify his brother’s body marked the end of a clandestine life.
    — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025
  • The conditions in the clandestine mining camps are part of the problem.
    — National Geographic, 12 Aug. 2020
  • But separating the two is tricky, beyond the skills of most clandestine chemists.
    — Sam Quinones, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2021
  • Having clandestine agreements would be contrary to the spirit of the game.
    — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 6 Oct. 2024
  • Some may be announced publicly; others may happen in more clandestine ways.
    — Eben Novy-Williams, Sportico.com, 10 June 2026
  • For decades, there’s been a quasi-clandestine accord about expanding oil drilling in the Gulf.
    — Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 Apr. 2026
  • The race to fill the Hicks void is a clandestine parade of all the worst human impulses.
    — Olivia Nuzzi, Daily Intelligencer, 28 Mar. 2018
  • The Traitors is set for another round of clandestine plotting.
    — Rick Porter, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Feb. 2024
  • In exchange, the agent told the pilot in a clandestine meeting, the aviator would be made a very rich man.
    — Joshua Goodman, Fortune, 28 Oct. 2025
  • That is, the online document is a clandestine way to share notes, photos, and videos with someone else.
    — Kim Komando, USA TODAY, 10 July 2020
  • So a hotel to help visitors navigate this clandestine world is a gift.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 Apr. 2026
  • But clandestine flows aren’t the biggest factor behind the market calm.
    — Matt Egan, CNN Money, 9 June 2026
  • But in the Reagan era, as now, the news was full of undisclosed meetings and clandestine plots to swing elections.
    — Longreads, 20 July 2017
  • Confessions were made of a clandestine massage, a trip to the hairdresser, a covert train journey to the city.
    — Jancee Dunn, New York Times, 21 May 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'clandestine.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: