secretarial

American  

[sek-ri-tair-ee-uhl] / ˌsɛk rɪˈtɛər i əl /

adjective

1. noting, of, or pertaining to a secretary or a secretary's skills and work.

   a secretarial school.

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Other Word Forms

• nonsecretarial
  adjective
• subsecretarial
  adjective
• unsecretarial
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of secretarial

First recorded in 1795–1805; secretary + -al ¹

Example Sentences

If I’d known I was going to turn into a writer, I would have taken Secretarial Sciences instead of Home Economics.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 2, 2025

Um, so for example, she made training plans for elite secretaries at Katie Gibbs Secretarial School, if you've ever heard of that.

From Scientific American • Sep. 21, 2023

The respectable Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School took over three floors of the hotel for its students, as it filled up with young women “determined to type their way out of small-town America”.

From The Guardian • Mar. 14, 2021

“The Secretarial Order has just caused massive confusion for everyone.”

From Washington Post • Oct. 16, 2019

But here, in this quiet, non-metropolitan college, so really “academic,” so really—in the oldest-fashioned ways—“cultural,” here is a two-year course in Secretarial Studies.

From The Women of Tomorrow by Hard, William