Private industries and services are owned or controlled by an individual person or a commercial company, rather than by the state or an official organization.

Private individuals are acting only for themselves, and are not representing any group, company, or organization.

Your private things belong only to you, or may only be used by you.

Private places or gatherings may be attended only by a particular group of people, rather than by the general public.

Private meetings, discussions, and other activities involve only a small number of people, and very little information about them is given to other people.

Your private life is that part of your life that is concerned with your personal relationships and activities, rather than with your work or business.

Your private thoughts or feelings are ones that you do not talk about to other people.

You can use private to describe situations or activities that are understood only by the people involved in them, and not by anyone else.

If you describe a place as private, or as somewhere where you can be private, you mean that it is a quiet place and you can be alone there without being disturbed.

If you describe someone as a private person, you mean that they are very quiet by nature and do not reveal their thoughts and feelings to other people.

You can use private to describe lessons that are not part of ordinary school activity, and which are given by a teacher to an individual pupil or a small group, usually in return for payment.

A private is a soldier of the lowest rank in an army or the marines.

Your privates are your genitals.

If you do something in private, you do it without other people being present, often because it is something that you want to keep secret.