Private – Secret – Confidential - Public

Private – belonging to oneself, not public or of the state;

1. of belonging (concerning) to a particular person,
not common or general; as private property
2. not open to, intended for, or controlled by the public, as a private school
3. not holding public office, as a private citizen
4. away from public view; secluded, as a private dining room
5. not known to the public; secret; confidential, as one’s private opinion
n. pl. gentials

Secret – adj. L. secretus – to set apart

L. secrenere – se – apart cernere – to shift, distinguish, discern; perceive
1. kept from public knowledge or from certain persons
2. retired; remote; secluded
3. keeping one’s affairs to oneself; secretive; close
4. beyond general knowledge or understanding; incomprehensible; deeply mysterious
5. concealed from sight or notice; hidden; as a secret drawer
5. acting in secret; as a secret society, secret agent
n.
1. something known only to a certain person and purposely kept from the knowledge of others
2. something not revealed, understood or explained
3. the true cause or explanation not obvious, as the secret of success
in secret – without the knowledge of others; secretly
Syn. Secret, covert, clandestine, stealthy, furtive, surreptitious, underhand.

Confidential –
1. told in confidence; imparted in secret
2. of or holding confidence
3. entrusted with private or secret matters; as a confidential agent.
See. Familiar

Public
1. of, belonging to, or concerning the people, as a whole; of the community at large
2. for the use or benefit of all; as a public building
3. acting in an official capacity on behalf of all the people as a whole; as, a public
prosecutor
4. known by, or open to the knowledge of, all or most people: as, he will make this information
public
n.
1. the people as a whole; community at large
2. a specific part of the people; those people considered together of some common interest or
purpose: as, the sporting public
in public, in open view; not private or in secret