隐藏(yǐn cáng) - to hide, to conceal in Mandarin

隐藏 (yǐn cáng) is to hide something so that it cannot be found: an object, a document, a feeling, a motive. It is the word a phone menu uses for hiding an app and the word a novel uses for a secret kept for thirty years.

The everyday spoken verb for stashing an object is plain 藏, and for hiding yourself behind a door it is 躲. 隐藏 is a shade more formal and a shade more abstract, so it sits comfortably with things you cannot physically pick up: 隐藏的问题, 隐藏的意思, 隐藏自己的情绪.

The trap for an English speaker is reaching for 隐藏 when they mean duck out of sight. If you are the thing being hidden, use 躲: 他躲在树后面, not 他隐藏在树后面.