secretary of state
Americannoun
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the head and chief administrator of the U.S. Department of State.
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British. any of several ministers in the British government.
A new secretary of state for the Home Department has been appointed.
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(in the U.S.) the appointed or elected official in a state government whose chief function is to distribute statutes, administer elections, keep archives, etc.
noun
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(in Britain) the head of any of several government departments
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(in the US) the head of the government department in charge of foreign affairs ( State Department )
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(in certain US states) an official with various duties, such as keeping records
Etymology
Origin of secretary of state
First recorded in 1610–20
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.
California’s secretary of state explicitly warned voters that counting would continue after Election Day, and election experts have spent years explaining why results often take days or even weeks to become final.
From Salon • Jun. 6, 2026
County election officials are required to provide the secretary of state with an updated tally of unprocessed ballots starting two days after election day and continuing every day until the count is complete.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2026
Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before election day and received within seven days after the election, as well as any provisional ballots cast, must still be counted, the California secretary of state said.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026
Steyer, a billionaire former hedge-fund manager who also ran for president in 2020, has spent $216 million of his own money on his run for governor, according to data from California’s secretary of state.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 3, 2026
This time, I was stumping for Hillary Clinton, Barack’s opponent in the brutal 2008 primary who’d gone on to become his loyal and effective secretary of state.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
