secretariat
noun
Simple meaning
A subdivision within an organisation or a company that deals with office management and/or administrative tasks such as handling correspondence and telephone calls.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehkrihtehreeuhtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
sɛkɹɪˈtɛɹiət
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
chiefly non-native speakers' english
A subdivision within an organisation or a company that deals with office management and/or administrative tasks such as handling correspondence and telephone calls, scheduling appointments, administering invoices, etc., often attached to specific executives or specific departments
The office or department of a government secretary.
Roman Catholicism
A kind of dicastery within the Roman Curia.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A subdivision within an organisation or a company that deals with office management and/or administrative tasks such as handling correspondence and telephone calls, scheduling appointments, administering invoices, etc., often attached to specific executives or specific departments
Used this way, secretariat is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
Nearby words
- secretariate , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use secretariat
- “The United Nations secretariat handles the administrative duties of the organization.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: subdivision within an organisation
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.