secretary

American  

[sek-ri-ter-ee] / ˈsɛk rɪˌtɛr i /

noun

• secretaries
  plural

1. a person, usually an official, who is in charge of the records, correspondence, minutes of meetings, and related affairs of an organization, company, association, etc..

   the secretary of the Linguistic Society of America.

2. a person employed to handle correspondence and do routine work in a business office, usually involving taking dictation, typing, filing, and the like.

3. private secretary.

4. (often initial capital letter) an officer of state charged with the superintendence and management of a particular department of government, as a member of the president's cabinet in the U.S..

   Secretary of the Treasury.

5. Also called diplomatic secretary. a diplomatic official of an embassy or legation who ranks below a counselor and is usually assigned as first secretary, second secretary, or third secretary.

6. a piece of furniture for use as a writing desk.

7. Also called secretary bookcase. a desk with bookshelves on top of it.

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secretary British  

/ ˈsɛkrətrɪ, -ərɪ /

noun

1. a person who handles correspondence, keeps records, and does general clerical work for an individual, organization, etc

2. the official manager of the day-to-day business of a society or board

3. (in Britain) a senior civil servant who assists a government minister

4. (in the US and New Zealand) the head of a government administrative department

5. (in Britain) See secretary of state

6. (in Australia) the head of a public service department

7. diplomacy the assistant to an ambassador or diplomatic minister of certain countries

8. another name for secretaire

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• secretaryship
  noun
• subsecretary
  noun
• subsecretaryship
  noun
• undersecretaryship
  noun
• secretarial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• secretaries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of secretary

1350–1400; Middle English secretarie one trusted with private or secret matters; confidant < Medieval Latin sēcrētārius < Latin sēcrēt ( um ) secret (noun) + -ārius -ary

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Explanation

If you handle the correspondence and clerical work for your boss or your company, you are a secretary. One of your duties as a secretary is to open the mail. Today, the preferred term for the kind of secretary who works in an office is administrative assistant. The noun secretary can also refer to the person who is in charge of an administrative department in the government, like the Secretary of Defense. A secretary can also be a piece of furniture — specifically, a type of writing desk.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

secretary secretaries

“We were caught flat-footed by the drone warfare in Ukraine and Russia,” Emil Michael, the Defense Department’s under secretary for research and engineering, said at the WSJ Tech conference Wednesday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

Cat Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, said that some of the documents could "now be published without prejudicing their investigation".

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

“Silica is toxic to your body,” David Zatezalo, then-assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, said in 2018; Mr. Berkes had pursued the ex-mining executive to a 2018 event at West Virginia University.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

Democrat Shirley Weber was reelected as secretary of state, besting Orange County Supervisor Donald Wagner, a Republican, with 64.7% of the vote when 59.4% of expected votes were in.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

The brook flowed past the ruins of that school, and in it were all of the teachers, the principal, and the secretary, too, wearing life preservers, on their way to Canada.

From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan

There are no long meetings with press secretaries.

From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026

But there were also 961,610 “medical secretaries and administrative assistants.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

Authorities declined to say how many offices had been targeted, but several secretaries of state and congressional offices reported receiving the letters.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

On a statewide level, secretaries of state are usually tasked with running elections.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Within months the ANC national conference accepted the pro-posal, and a Council of the Congress of the People was created, with Chief Luthuli as chairman and Walter Sisulu and Yusuf Cachalia as joint secretaries.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

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Related Words

• assistant
• clerk
• executive secretary

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