Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to an office or a post of authority: official duties.
- adj. Authorized by a proper authority; authoritative: official permission.
- adj. Holding office or serving in a public capacity: an official representative.
- adj. Characteristic of or befitting a person of authority; formal: an official banquet.
- adj. Authorized by or contained in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary. Used of drugs.
- n. One who holds an office or position, especially one who acts in a subordinate capacity for an institution such as a corporation or governmental agency.
- n. Sports A referee or umpire.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to office or the performance of the duties of an office: as, official duty; official cares or responsibility.
- Derived from the proper office or officer, or from the proper authority; made or communicated by virtue of authority; hence, authorized: as, an official statement or report.
- Performing duties or offices; rendering useful service; ministering.
- n. One who is invested with an office of a public nature; one holding a civil appointment: as, a government official; a railway official.
- n. In English ecclesiastical law, a person appointed as judge by a bishop, chapter, or archdeacon, to hear causes in the ecclesiastical courts.
- In pharm., authorized by the pharmacopœia of some country or countries: as, an official drug; an official preparation. In this sense recent, displacing the broader term officinal.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or pertaining to an office or public trust.
- adj. Derived from the proper office or officer, or from the proper authority; made or communicated by virtue of authority
- adj. Approved by authority; authorized.
- adj. sanctioned by the pharmacopoeia; appointed to be used in medicine; officinal
- adj. Discharging an office or function.
- adj. Relating to an office; especially, to a subordinate executive officer or attendant.
- adj. Relating to an ecclesiastical judge appointed by a bishop, chapter, archdeacon, etc., with charge of the spiritual jurisdiction.
- n. An office holder invested with powers and authorities.
- n. A person responsible for applying the rules of a game or sport in a competition.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to an office or public trust.
- adj. Derived from the proper office or officer, or from the proper authority; made or communicated by virtue of authority.
- adj. (Pharm.) Approved by authority; sanctioned by the pharmacopœia; appointed to be used in medicine. Cf. Officinal.
- adj. obsolete Discharging an office or function.
- n. One who holds an office; esp., a subordinate executive officer or attendant.
- n. An ecclesiastical judge appointed by a bishop, chapter, archdeacon, etc., with charge of the spiritual jurisdiction.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (of a church) given official status as a national or state institution
- n. a worker who holds or is invested with an office
- adj. conforming to set usage, procedure, or discipline
- adj. of or relating to an office
- adj. having official authority or sanction
- adj. verified officially
- n. someone who administers the rules of a game or sport
Etymologies
- From Old French official, from Latin officium ("duty, service"). (Wiktionary)
- From Middle English, ecclesiastical officer, from Old French, from Latin officiālis, an attendant of an office, from officium, duty, service; see office. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I think this has to do with the *official* position that a country takes vs. what individual people do and believe, often in violation of the official policies and laws.”
“Each year, The Good Life expo honors a particular individual with the title official ambassador.”
“During his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night, President Barack Obama debuted what he described as his "official birth video" to his audience.”
“Mr. Koch, who said he "loved" Cardinal O'Connor "as a brother," flew to Rome to attend the consistory ceremony that made the title official.”
“Quoting what it called an official source, the state news agency said "Syria already refuted what the U.S. administration claimed regarding the use of Iran or others to resolve internal issues, expressing surprise over the U.S. administration insistence to repeat these allegations.”
The Wall Street Journal: Syrian Security Forces Fire on Mourners
“I want to start with what I call the official dogma.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Do Markets Give Us Too Many Choices?
“He also made a film about 50 years of what he calls official contradictions and denials.”
“See, for instance, my earlier posts on what I refer to as the official history of the short story, as opposed to stuff which people might might actually want to read for fun.”
“Many of the severely wounded soldiers returning from Iraq face the prospect of poverty and what they describe as official indifference and incompetence.”
“The sound if tame drawing and the mediocre painting of what they called official art revolted them as it revolted Whistler; but while he nearly suppressed representation they could see in art nothing but representation.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘official’.
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POL - elections
weak democracy, stand a chance ag..., whistle stop, special interest ..., voting machine, trumpeting support, voting power, to court votes, war chest, short-term observ..., soak-the-rich lef..., term of office and 930 more...
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AGRI - horse breeding
driving, implement, Trot, speed, exhale, dope, obstacle, tail, plow, coloration, para, weaving and 678 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
+
2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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Summer Olympics - Beijing 2008
All things to do with the modern Summer Olympics
free tibet, flame, torch relay, host city, five rings, medal, delegate, official, athlete, team, contingent, sport and 72 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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The History of Cool
Words that mean "cool" around the world and through the ages.
cool, awesome, wild, stylin', groovy, neat, nifty, swell, great, tubular, radical, bitchin' and 188 more...
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OED word of the Day
Just like it says
majority, plasm, apal, statin, legerdemain, leap year, daffodil, maternal, key worker, jojoba, skelf, pose and 101 more...
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swag
one word music reviews
critical, official, swag, sick, slap, rugged, wicked, nasty, mad, filthy, sublime, ace and 31 more...
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The Bureaucracy Mambo
The title of this list is a reference to Hermes Conrad of Futurama, who sang a song by this title in the episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back."
bureaucracy, requisition, permit, paperwork, official, red tape, file, signature, bureaucrat, department, mandarin, efficiency and 2 more...
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centered?
(Not so) neutral terms. They avoid being completely biased, but still have strong connotations.
militant, dialect, official, alleged, colonialism, mutation, justice
Tweets
Looking for tweets for official.
travismcdermott a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm. 1396) 25 Official membris is to seie: a fyngir, a ioynt, an hand, either a foot or othere lymes of office. Jul 13, 2008