# secretary

Pronunciation: US say "SEK-ruh-tair-ee" /ˈsɛk.(ɹ)əˌtɛɹ.i/; UK say "SEK-ruh-tuh-ree" /ˈsɛk.ɹə.tə.ɹi/

## Noun

1. A person employed to deal with letters, keep records, take notes and handle routine office work, for an organization or for one person.
   - Simple: A person whose job is to write letters, keep records, answer calls and do other office work for someone.
   - _Her secretary rescheduled the afternoon meetings and forwarded the urgent emails to her phone._
   - _Hospital secretaries manage appointment records for hundreds of patients each week._
2. The official who leads a particular department of government.
   - Simple: A top official who leads one department of the government.
   - _The secretary of defense briefed lawmakers on the new policy._
   - _Several secretaries resigned during the political crisis._
3. A managing or leading official in certain non-profit bodies, for example a political party, a trade union, or an international organization.
   - Simple: A leading officer in a group like a political party, union, or international body.
   - _The general secretary of the trade union called for a strike._
   - _As general secretary of the union, she led the talks with the country's biggest employers._
4. An official of a club, society, or company who handles its formal correspondence and records, takes the minutes, and organizes its meetings.
   - Simple: Someone in a club, group, or company who handles its letters and records, writes notes at meetings, and sets them up.
   - _The board asked the secretary to send notice of the annual meeting to every shareholder._
   - _As secretary of the historical society, he kept the minutes and answered letters from members._
5. A type of writing desk, typically with a fold-out work surface over a set of drawers and a cabinet or shelves above. *(US)*
   - Simple: A writing desk with drawers and a fold-down surface for writing.
   - _He inherited a mahogany secretary with a fold-down writing surface._
   - _The antique dealer restored several secretaries from the colonial era._
6. A secretary bird: a long-legged African bird of prey, Sagittarius serpentarius, that hunts on the ground.
   - Simple: A short name for the secretary bird, a large African bird with long legs that hunts snakes on the ground.
   - _On the open savanna we watched a secretary stamp hard on a snake in the grass._
   - _The plains held vultures, eagles and a lone secretary striding through the grass on its long legs._

## Noun

7. A person entrusted with another's secrets; a confidant. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A person you trust to keep your secrets.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To serve as the secretary of an organization or group.

## Origin

Latin cernere 'to separate' took the prefix se- 'apart' to make secernere 'to separate, set apart,' whose past participle secrētus meant 'private, secret'; from that, Medieval Latin formed secrētārius, 'one entrusted with secrets.'

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/secretary (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).