official

1. 1.

   a worker who holds or is invested with an office

   Synonymsfunctionary

   Broaderskilled worker

   Narrowerapparatchikappointeebailiffbeadlebureaucratcaretakercensorcensus takerchurch officercity father
2. 2.

   someone who administers the rules of a game or sport

   “the golfer asked for an official who could give him a ruling”

   Broaderadjudicator

   Narrowerfootball officiallinesmanrefereescorekeeperstartertimekeeperumpire

Other forms of official

plural

officials·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about official

What does official mean?

official means "having official authority or sanction". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in official?

official has 3 syllables: of-fic-ial. The stress falls on "fic". In IPA it is /əˈfɪʃəl/.

What is another word for official?

Close synonyms include prescribed, functionary. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of official?

The recorded antonyms are unofficial.

Is official a common word?

official is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with official?

5 words rhyme with official. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.