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Concealment (also called abscondence or hiding) is obscuring something from view or rendering it inconspicuous, the opposite of exposure. A military term is CCD: camouflage, concealment and deception (looks the same as the surroundings, cannot be seen, looks like something else, respectively); in a wider sense the other two are also forms of hiding.
The objective of hiding is often to keep the presence of an object or person secret, but in other cases not the presence is a secret, but only the location.
More generally an object may be hidden from view, either purposely, or as a side effect; in this case the presence of the object is not necessarily a secret. Examples:
In nature
Many organisms have evolved various forms of concealment. See the articles to hide, camouflage and mimicry.
Military tactics
- In the genre of military tactics, the term refers to any object, vegetation, terrain feature, or phenomenon (i.e., night, smoke, fog) that prevents a combatant (or unit of combatants) from being seen by the enemy. In differentiation from the similar concept of cover, concealment cannot protect against actual projectiles.
Computer science and programming
- Information hiding is the hiding of design decisions in a computer program that are most likely to change.
- Hidden surface determination is the process used to determine which surfaces and parts of surfaces are not visible from a certain viewpoint.
Information and data
- Cryptography is the study of message secrecy.
- Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message; this is in contrast to cryptography, where the existence of the message itself is not disguised, but the content is obscured.
Fiction
Slang
- In New Zealand slang a "hiding" may refer to a sound beating. Come here Rangi, I am gonna give you such a hiding
See also
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