SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
proprietary
adjective
Owned by a particular person or organization, often with restricted rights of use.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Under particular ownership
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topPatent, copyright, and trademark are distinct protections and do not apply to every proprietary item. Proprietary chiefly identifies ownership or control.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See proprietary in use
The company kept its proprietary design details confidential.
A small publisher offered Noor a lucrative commission to illustrate a series of travel journals. The proposed remuneration covered her drawing and revision work, while a separate document explained which designs would become proprietary to the publisher.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license