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Glite Dictionary
to declassify

to declassify

33 6.1
Remove a secret label from documents so the public can see them
  • verb
  • /diːˈklæsɪfaɪ/
  • Formal
translation icon : desclasificar
  • The government decided to declassify the documents to provide transparency to the public.
  • declassify documents
  • declassify information
  • declassify government documents

And then he says, as president, I could have declassified, but now I can't.

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Examples

  • About 20 years ago he got it declassified and went public.

    Good Deeds (2012)

  • Does the President have the power to declassify information?

    Fair Game (2010)

  • The president is being pressed by all sides to declassify the report.

    Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

  • For this and other reasons, the military scientists appealed to the Pentagon to declassify their work.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Remember when they declassified all that UFO footage a couple years ago?

    Nope (2022)

  • Meanwhile, the US government still refuses to declassify the memos published by WikiLeaks.

    Blog text (8)

  • A few years ago, the British government started declassifying and releasing its UFO files.

    Aliens at the Pentagon (2018)

  • In 1985, Vietnam's Rules of Engagement were declassified.

    Zeitgeist (2007)

  • Brennan announced that the president had declassified the drone program in Yemen, thus permitting him to speak.

    Blog text (10)

  • The administration decided to declassify two before-and-after photos of the Al Furat manufacturing facility (Wash. Post 2002, A21).

    Academic text (2003)

Synonyms

to unclassify
vsto declassify
1 7.6

To take something out of a category so it is no longer in that group

is the official removal of classification making material available to the public
to declass
vsto declassify
  • Formal
6.9

To make a document no longer secret

is the official act that makes material accessible to the public

Antonyms

to classify
  • Formal
283 5.5

To say information is secret so only some people can see it

How Public

to publish
∞ 3.3
to declassify
  • Formal
33 6.1
to classify
  • Formal
283 5.5
to withhold
210 5.1

Surface Forms

declassify infinitive
declassified past
declassified past participle
declassifying present participle
declassifies third person singular

Morphology

declassify = classify (semi-transparent) = de + class + ify

The prefix 'de-' clearly signals removal or reversal, but the public-access sense depends on the specialized bureaucratic meaning of 'classify' as assigning security status.

Etymology

The word declassify begins with de- meaning 'remove' and the rest, classify, means 'to put into a class or group'. So to declassify something is like 'taking off' a secret label from a file and making it public.