Secretary of State
436
3.7
- noun
- /ˈsɛkrəˌtɛri əv steɪt/
- Formal
:
secretario de Estado (EE. UU.)
- Thank you Chairman, and thank you Secretary of State for joining us today.
- U.S. Secretary of State
- former Secretary of State
- Deputy Secretary of State
And he says, you know, I was supposed to be Secretary of State.
- And he says, you know, I was supposed to be Secretary of State.
- We got to talk about World War Three and what the Secretary of State just had to say.
- Exactly the clarity you want from a Secretary of State.
- So that's the first starting point in covering Secretary Clinton when she was Secretary of State and her Middle East views.
- Well, now, we just heard that Secretary of State Blinken is now delaying his trip due to, quote, uncertainty about the situation.
- Now, if he if, if he were Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State under, under Trump, I can't imagine it would last, you know, for more than six months.
- This is Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State is parroting Putin talking points.
- You can only be moved from the the Secretary of State.
- Well, he's not the Secretary of State, Donald Trump is and Elon Musk is.
- I turned over that battalion to the guy who is now secretary, Secretary of State.
- So you get a lot of when you're when you're a first lady, a senator or Secretary of State.
Examples
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I thank the Secretary of State for the statement.
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She was the Secretary of State under Clinton.
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We got to talk about World War Three and what the Secretary of State just had to say.
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Now it went to the Secretary of State because they have to sign off on it too, right?
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The Secretary of State now knows who you are.
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The Secretary of State has resigned.
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Indeed, the unit answers only to the Secretary of State, at that time James Baker.
Fiction book (1994) -
The cooperation of Secretary of State James Baker was sought, and he gave it immediately.
Fiction book (1994) -
Hillary Clinton comes in as Secretary of State.
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The Secretary of State announced new policies regarding international relations.
Synonyms
195
3.5
A government official who manages relations with other countries
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'secretary' (a senior official) + 'of' + 'state' (the government), so a learner who knows the constituents will readily infer it denotes a government official associated with state affairs. Specific institutional details (e.g. U.S. cabinet role or responsibility for foreign affairs) require world/cultural knowledge, but the basic referent is transparently derivable and cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
Secretary of State may come from old times when a trusted secretary kept a ruler's private papers and handled letters for the state, or 'the government'. That's why today a Secretary of State is the top official in charge of a country's relations with other countries.