Secretary Definition & Meaning

American

British

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms secretary American [sek-ri-ter-ee] / ˈsɛk rɪˌtɛr i /

noun

plural

secretaries

1. a person, usually an official, who is in charge of the records, correspondence, minutes of meetings, and related affairs of an organization, company, association, etc..

   the secretary of the Linguistic Society of America.

2. a person employed to handle correspondence and do routine work in a business office, usually involving taking dictation, typing, filing, and the like.

3. private secretary.

4. (often initial capital letter) an officer of state charged with the superintendence and management of a particular department of government, as a member of the president's cabinet in the U.S..

   Secretary of the Treasury.

5. Also called diplomatic secretary. a diplomatic official of an embassy or legation who ranks below a counselor and is usually assigned as first secretary, second secretary, or third secretary.

6. a piece of furniture for use as a writing desk.

7. Also called secretary bookcase. a desk with bookshelves on top of it.

secretary British / -ərɪ, ˈsɛkrətrɪ, ˌsɛkrɪˈtɛərɪəl /

noun

1. a person who handles correspondence, keeps records, and does general clerical work for an individual, organization, etc

2. the official manager of the day-to-day business of a society or board

3. (in Britain) a senior civil servant who assists a government minister

4. (in the US and New Zealand) the head of a government administrative department

5. (in Britain) See secretary of state

6. (in Australia) the head of a public service department

7. diplomacy the assistant to an ambassador or diplomatic minister of certain countries

8. another name for secretaire

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

• secretarial adjective
• secretaryship noun
• subsecretary noun
• subsecretaryship noun
• undersecretaryship noun

Etymology

Origin of secretary

1350–1400; Middle English secretarie one trusted with private or secret matters; confidant < Medieval Latin sēcrētārius < Latin sēcrēt ( um ) secret (noun) + -ārius -ary

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

President Harry S. Truman and his secretary of state, George C. Marshall, told the Europeans that the U.S. would help fund them if they presented a unified reconstruction proposal, not national pleas.

From The Wall Street Journal

Nowak, who became general secretary of the TUC in 2023, also said the government must act on a wide range of fronts to make people feel better off, or risk paying a political price.

From BBC

Silicon Valley is full of stories of secretaries and others benefiting from big IPOs.

From The Wall Street Journal

It shifted control over appointments to the General Assembly’s majority and minority leaders and put some of the board’s administrative functions under the secretary of state.

From Salon

Scotland's justice secretary Angela Constance is to be investigated over whether she breached the ministerial code in her remarks about a grooming gangs expert.

From BBC

Related Words

• assistant
• clerk
• executive secretary

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.