unofficially
adverb
Simple meaning
Not in an official capacity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnuhfishuhleeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənəˈfɪʃəli
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.
adverb
Not in an official capacity
“Unofficially, he serves as the treasurer.”
In a way that is not official; in an unofficial manner.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not in an official capacity
Used this way, unofficially is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.
“Unofficially, he serves as the treasurer.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Official and authoritative
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unofficially
- “Unofficially, he serves as the treasurer.”adverb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Not having official authority or sanction.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: not in an official capacity
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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.