registrar

American  

[rej-uh-strahr, rej-uh-strahr] / ˈrɛdʒ əˌstrɑr, ˌrɛdʒ əˈstrɑr /

noun

registrars plural

1. a person who keeps a record; an official recorder.

2. an agent of a bank, trust company, or other corporation who is responsible for certifying and registering issues of securities.

3. an official at a school or college who maintains students' personal and academic records, issues reports of grades, mails out official publications, etc.

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registrar British  

/ ˌrɛdʒɪˈstrɑː, ˈrɛdʒɪˌstrɑː /

noun

1. a person who keeps official records

2. an administrative official responsible for student records, enrolment procedure, etc, in a school, college, or university

3. a hospital doctor senior to a houseman but junior to a consultant, specializing in either medicine ( medical registrar ) or surgery ( surgical registrar )

4. the chief medical administrator of a large hospital

5. a person employed by a company to maintain a register of its security issues

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• registrarship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• registrars
  plural

Etymology

Origin of registrar

1350–1400; alteration ( see -ar ²) of earlier registrary < Medieval Latin registrārius ( register, -ary ); replacing earlier registrer, Middle English registrer < Anglo-French ( Old French registreur ) < Medieval Latin registrātor, equivalent to registrā ( re ) to register + -tor -tor

Explanation

A registrar is the head of a university's record-keeping department. It's the job of the registrar to keep track of class schedules and a record of students' grades. At a college or university, the registrar is the person who's responsible for keeping accurate records of classes, students, and grades. You might visit the registrar if your schedule needs to be changed, or when you want a copy of your transcript to send to a graduate school or for a fellowship application. Registrar comes from the Medieval Latin registrarius, "one who keeps a record,"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

registrar registrars

She said playing the registrar who married TV fans' favourites Nessa and Smithy, played by show writers Ruth Jones and James Corden, was a pivotal moment.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026

Dr Melissa Ryan, 45, a paediatric registrar, said she was frustrated that the government was cutting training places and some children were waiting years for assessments.

From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2026

The canine fraud was discovered only because the woman reported herself to the county registrar.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026

Art Tinoco, the Riverside County registrar of voters, has refuted that number — saying it was based on a misunderstanding of raw data that had not been fully processed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026

On a hunch, Mrs. Richardson looked up the number for the registrar at the New York School of Fine Arts.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

Both registrars thought they could finish the job in time to certify the county’s presidential election results by the Dec. 3 deadline.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2024

The vote counts on these pages update periodically as results are reported by the Associated Press and county registrars.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2024

The registrars need to confirm if that’s true, because it would mean the person is also ineligible to vote.

From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2024

PAs have worked at Birmingham Children's Hospital for 10 years but the BBC saw rotas which show them on tier two - normally a rota for senior doctors called registrars.

From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2023

Reese explained that the teachers had asked the board of registrars to set aside a day each week for employees of the public schools to register as voters.

From "Because They Marched" by Russell Freedman