Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The department administered by a governmental secretary, especially for an international organization.
  • noun The office occupied by such a department.
  • noun The office or position of a governmental secretary.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as secretariate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The office of a secretary; the place where a secretary transacts business, keeps records, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The office or department of a government secretary.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun thoroughbred that won the triple crown in 1973
  • noun an administrative unit responsible for maintaining records and other secretarial duties; especially for international organizations

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French secrétariat, from Old French, from Medieval Latin sēcrētāriātus, from sēcrētārius, secretary; see secretary.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French secrétariat.

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Examples

  • With a total budget less than 1% of the Department for International Development's, and fewer staff than Cornwall council's fire and rescue service, the secretariat is unlikely to find too many areas in which it will be uniquely placed to add real value.

    The Commonwealth: from courage to cowardice Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah 2010

  • Of course giving more financial power to SecGen Kofi Annan (father of Kojo) may not be a particularly top-notch idea and shifting money management from the unaccountable General Assembly to an equally unaccountable but possibly more sensible professional secretariat is not going to change the culture of the UN one iota.

    You have to feel sorry for them Helen 2006

  • The secretariat is working to ensure that the people who benefit from these jobs are those who truly need the opportunity.

    Investing in our Young People 2005

  • The secretariat is a bold new adventure for the world of post-conflict philanthropy, and has the potential to serve as a model for expediting the transitional process for countries seeking to lift themselves from a crisis-ridden past.

    Rahim Kanani: A New Kind of Investing: The Philanthropy Secretariat in Liberia 2010

  • The secretariat is a bold new adventure for the world of post-conflict philanthropy, and has the potential to serve as a model for expediting the transitional process for countries seeking to lift themselves from a crisis-ridden past.

    Rahim Kanani: A New Kind of Investing: The Philanthropy Secretariat in Liberia 2010

  • The U.S. position has now been incorporated in a draft resolution written by the WHO secretariat, which is highly responsive to US pressure.

    James Love: Hillary and Obama Set to Kill Medical R&D Treaty at WHO Meeting 2009

  • He's now being walked, we believe, towards the, what's called the secretariat building, the building I'm in, the tall tower of the U.N. PHILLIPS: Yes, kind of set us up of where exactly you are and where the shooting took place.

    CNN Transcript Oct 3, 2002 2002

  • But the secretariat is a weak organization that gets undermined.

    CNN Transcript Sep 27, 2001 2001

  • HOLDER: I mean, what happened is the executive secretariat, that is the folks who handle correspondence within the Justice Department, got that document and referred it seeing it was a pardon matter, or interpreting it that way referred it to the pardon attorney for a response.

    CNN Transcript - Special Event: Congress Searches for Answers in Controversial Clinton Pardon - February 8, 2001 2001

  • The secretariat, which is a civilian body responsible for monitoring police efficiency in the province, has only seven staff members in its staff structure made up of 41 post.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2000

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  • This is also the name of a horse.

    September 28, 2012