official

[uh-fish-uhl]

noun

1. a person appointed or elected to an office or charged with certain duties.

adjective

1. of or relating to an office or position of duty, trust, or authority.

   official powers.

2. authorized or issued authoritatively.

   an official report.

3. holding office.

4. appointed or authorized to act in a designated capacity.

   an official representative.

5. (of an activity or event) intended for the notice of the public and performed or held on behalf of officials or of an organization; formal.

   the official opening of a store.

6. Pharmacology.,  noting drugs or drug preparations that are recognized by and that conform to the standards of the United States Pharmacopeia or the National Formulary.

official

¹

/ əˈfɪʃəl /

adjective

1. of or relating to an office, its administration, or its duration

2. sanctioned by, recognized by, or derived from authority

   an official statement

3. appointed by authority, esp for some special duty

4. having a formal ceremonial character

   an official dinner

noun

1. a person who holds a position in an organization, government department, etc, esp a subordinate position

Official

²

/ əˈfɪʃəl /

adjective

1. of or relating to one of the two factions of the IRA and Sinn Féin, created by a split in 1969. The Official movement subsequently renounced terrorism and entered constitutional politics in the Irish Republic as the Workers' Party (now the Democratic Left)

noun

1. a member of the Official IRA and Sinn Féin

Other Word Forms

• officially adverb
• nonofficial adjective
• nonofficially adverb
• preofficial adjective
• preofficially adverb
• pseudoofficial adjective
• pseudoofficially adverb
• quasi-official adjective
• quasi-officially adverb
• subofficial noun
• subofficially adverb
• underofficial adjective
• unofficial adjective
• unofficially adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of official¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Late Latin officiālis “of duty,” equivalent to Latin offici(um) “service, duty” + -ālis adjective suffix; office, -al ¹

Example Sentences

Council officials recommended The Roseburn Path as the "preferred route" for the tram line early last year.

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The Dominican Republic has experienced a nationwide power cut which officials said was linked to a failure in the electricity transmission system.

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The Taliban official also rejected reports that women were banned from medical centres for not wearing the burka.

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It solves what I might call the Brennan problem, which afflicts officials who might otherwise have to spend their natural lives ducking and weaving about what they did in office.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan could be imperiled by rigid government-imposed conditions on a contingency plan for reducing the blue-helmet force there, a senior UN official warned Tuesday.

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Related Words

• administrator 
• agent 
• bureaucrat 
• civil servant 
• commissioner 
• director 
• executive 
• leader 
• manager 
• minister 
• officer 
• representative 
• secretary