clerical

UK/ˈklɛɹɪkəl/

adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,356 of 15,258leans written

Clerical means to do with office paperwork, or with the clergy. A clerical error, clerical work, a clerical collar.

The two senses share a root: a clerk was originally a cleric, because for centuries the clergy were the people who could read and write. A clerical error is the standard phrase for a mistake in the paperwork rather than in the decision.

Definitions of clerical

1adjectiveclericalTo do with office paperwork, or with the clergy.B2+
“She took a clerical job at the bank, filing records and answering letters.”

clerical is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin clericalis comes from clericus, a clergyman, from Greek klerikos. Clerk is the same word.

Latin
clēricālis — clerical
English, today
clerical

Built from

clēricus · Latin — clergyman, priest

From Latin clēricālis (“clerical”), from clēricus (“clergyman, priest”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

clerical in the wild

A Catholic cleric may voluntarily request to be removed from the clerical state for a grave, personal reason.
Loss of clerical state
Within the Catholic Church, clerical celibacy is mandated for all clergy in the Latin Church except in the permanent diaconate.
Clerical celibacy
The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service counters, screening callers, and other administrative tasks.
Clerk
A clerical collar, Roman collar, clergy collar, or, informally, dog collar is an item of Christian clerical clothing.
Clerical collar
The clerical script, sometimes also chancery script, is a style of Chinese writing that evolved from the late Warring States period to the Qin dynasty.
Clerical script

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the clēricus family

clerk

clerical — used about once every 3,411 pages · #8,356 · point at the bar for the others

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