From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe secretthe secretWAY/METHODa particular way of achieving a good result, that is the best or only waythe secret to (doing) something The secret to making good pastry is to use very cold water. Your hair always looks so great – what’s your secret? What do you think is the secret of her success? → secret
Examples from the Corpus
the secret to (doing) something• I believe the secret to its flavor was spices used in preparation.• And the Vatican has held the secret to this very day.• It was a combination of inventions that proved to hold the secret to quality.• The friendship within the team really is the secret to my success.• Energy and above all swiftness in action, that is the secret to riches and success.• Watt gave machines the secret to controlling their own revolutions, which was his revolution.• Danielle, who originally trained with Marguerite Maury, believes that part of the secret to reducing cellulite is relaxation.• Intel officials were afraid Gaede would sell the secrets to a foreign company that could use the information to clone Pentium chips. 