secretary
UK/ˈsɛk.ɹə.tə.ɹi//ˈsɛk.(ɹ)əˌtɛɹ.i/
secretary noun: a person who keeps records, takes notes and handles general clerical work.
Noun
secretary (plural secretaries)
- A person who keeps records, takes notes and handles general clerical work.
- I have a personal secretary to help me organize my clients.
- The secretary at the school is in charge of communication between parents, students, and staff.
- The head of a department of government.
- Well briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under Secretary of State, known as the Permanent Secretary.1980 February 25, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “Open Government”, in Yes Minister, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne)
- A managerial or leading position in certain non-profit organizations, such as political parties, trade unions, international organizations.
- Ban Ki-Moon was a secretary general of the United Nations.
- As the Soviet Union collapsed, the party secretaries in the Central Asian republics found themselves leaders of newly-established sovereign countries.
- A type of desk, secretary desk; a secretaire.
- A secretary bird, a bird of the species Sagittarius serpentarius.
- Someone entrusted with a secret; a confidant.
- Someone employed as a scribe for personal correspondence.
- "Do not give yourself any uneasiness about one so utterly unworthy of a thought! Sir George Kingston is without one grain of either honour or real feeling! The fact is, I have, for some months past, been his secretary, and wrote for him the letters which were sent you!"1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Letters Restored”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 220
Verb
secretary (third-person singular simple present secretaries, present participle secretarying, simple past and past participle secretaried)
- To serve as a secretary of.
Proper noun capitalized: Secretary
Secretary
secretary meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
secretary in Hindi
- person keeping records and handling clerical work
- सचिव saciv, मुंशी muñśī
- head of a department of government
- सचिव saciv
- leading or managerial position in certain organizations
- सचिव saciv
secretary in Tamil
- செயலாளர், செயலர்
secretary in Marathi
- सचिव, सचिवपद, सचिवांना
secretary in Urdu
- person keeping records and handling clerical work
- سِکْریٹْری sikreṭrī, کاتِب kātib, مُنْشی munśī
More languagesFewer languages
- secretary in Bengali
- সম্পাদক śompadok
- secretary in Telugu
- కార్యదర్శి kāryadarśi, సహాయకుడు sahāyakuḍu
- secretary in Malayalam
- മുൻഷി muṉṣi
- secretary in Kannada
- ಒತ್ತಾಳ್, ಒತ್ತಾಳು, ನೆರವಿಗ, ಕಾರ್ಯದರ್ಶಿ
- secretary in Punjabi
- ਸਕੱਤਰ sakattar, ਮੰਤਰੀ mantrī
- secretary in Gujarati
- સચિવ, સેક્રેટરી, સચિવપદ
- secretary in Odia
- ସଚିବ, ସେକ୍ରେଟାରୀ
- secretary in Nepali
- सचिव, सचिवलाई, सचिवमा
- secretary in Pashto
- منشي monší, سکرتر sekartár, سکرټر sekarṭár, کاتب kātéb
- secretary in Tagalog
- sekretarya, kalihim
- secretary in Arabic
- سِكْرِتِير sekretēr, سِكْرِتِيرَة sekretēra, كَاتِب kātib, كَاتِبَة kātiba
- secretary in Malay
- setiausaha, sekretaris, katib
- secretary in Indonesian
- sekretaris, katib, menteri
- secretary in Thai
- เลขานุการ lee-kǎa-nú-gaan, รัฐมนตรี rát-tà-mon-dtrii, เลขาธิการ lee-kǎa-tí-gaan
- secretary in Vietnamese
- thư ký, thư kí, bí thư, bộ trưởng
- secretary in Myanmar
- စက္ကရီတေရီ cakka.riteri, စာချီ cahkyi, အတွင်းရေးမှူး a.twang:re:hmu:
Examples of secretary in a sentence
- There had been words between him and the secretary about the outcome of the meeting.
- Every day at two o'clock, he sends his secretary out to buy him a coffee.
- Her excellent organisation skills derive from her time as a secretary in the army.
Synonyms of secretary
- administrator
- assistant
- administrative assistant
- amanuensis
- clerk
- scribe
- scrivener
- seneschal
Forms of secretary
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | secretaries |
| alternative form (obsolete) | secretarie |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | secretaries |
| present participle | secretarying |
| past participle | secretaried |
| past | secretaried |
Origin of secretary
From Medieval Latin secrētārius (“one entrusted with secrets”), from Latin secrētus (“private, secret”), past participle of secernere (“to separate, set apart”), from se- (“apart”) + cernere (“to separate”).
Named by Lord Baltimore after his secretary.
Words formed from secretary
- class secretary
- foreign secretary
- general secretary
- Home Secretary
- legal secretary
- nonsecretary
- parliamentary under secretary
- press secretary
- secretarial
- secretary bird
- secretary desk
- secretaryess
- Secretary General
- secretary hand
- secretaryless
- secretarylike
- secretary problem
- secretaryship
- secretary spread
- social secretary
- subsecretary
- undersecretary
Phrases with secretary
Questions about secretary
- What does secretary mean?
- Secretary means a person who keeps records, takes notes and handles general clerical work.
- What is secretary in Hindi?
- Secretary in Hindi is सचिव (saciv), मुंशी (muñśī). See Secretary meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is secretary?
- Secretary can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce secretary?
- Secretary is pronounced /ˈsɛk.ɹə.tə.ɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of secretary?
- The plural of secretary is secretaries.
Words near secretary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: secretary (page history and authors); Secretary (page history and authors); secretary (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); secretary (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); മുൻഷി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); secretary (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਮੰਤਰੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); secretary (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); secretary (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); secretary (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-secretary.ogg.
Cite this entry: “secretary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/secretary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.