secretarial

[ sek-ri-tair-ee-uh l ]

/ ˌsɛk rɪˈtɛər i əl /

noting, of, or pertaining to a secretary or a secretary's skills and work: a secretarial school.

Nearby words

First recorded in 1795–1805; secretary + -al¹

Related formsnon·sec·re·tar·i·al, adjectivesub·sec·re·tar·i·al, adjectiveun·sec·re·tar·i·al, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

I had been at secretarial college with those two girls [Valerie and her sister Mary], so I knew them very well.
Kate Middleton’s Code-Breaking Granny: Duchess Uncovers Wartime Secrets|Tim Teeman|June 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
After all, she was back in the same tired circle: the icy, gray streets of Detroit, back and forth to work at a secretarial job.
The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis|Richard Ben Cramer|January 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
When I was in high school, I had a secretarial job at a fuel company in a small town in New Hampshire.
Black Women Still Battle Mad Men in Corporate America|Rebecca Carroll|March 30, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Draper told Lois that she was not made for a secretarial job.
The Mad Men Finishing School|Emma Pearse|August 11, 2009|DAILY BEAST

A young woman was employed in a secretarial capacity shortly before the world war began.
Certain Success|Norval A. Hawkins
Besides his various editorial, secretarial, and legislative positions, he served as Overseer of Harvard College from 1858 to 1863.
John Greenleaf Whittier|W. Sloane Kennedy
She could not sit all morning simply talking to him; that might be social but not secretarial.
Good References|E. J. Rath
How did you come to be sent as my secretary, if you can't do secretarial work?
Lone Star Planet|Henry Beam Piper and John Joseph McGuire
As soon as Parliament began she had promised to do some secretarial work for Marsham on two or three mornings a week.
The Testing of Diana Mallory|Mrs. Humphry Ward

adj.

1801, from stem of secretary (Medieval Latin secretarius) + -al (1).