Official - Adjective

Adjective

As an adjective, official often but not always means pertaining to the government, either as state employee or having state recognition, or to analogous governance, or to formal (especially legally regulated) proceeding as opposed to informal business. Some examples:

• An official holiday is a public holiday, having national (or regional) recognition.
• An official language is a language recognised by a government, for its own use in administration, or for the use of citizens (for example on signposts).
• An official spokesperson would be an individual empowered to speak for the government, or some part of it such as a ministry, on a range of issues and on the record for the media.
• An official statement is issued by an organisation as an expression of its corporate position or opinion; an official apology is an apology similarly issued by an organisation (as opposed to an apology by an individual).
• Official policy is policy publicly acknowledged and defended by an organisation. In these cases unofficial is an antonym, and variously may mean informal, unrecognised, personal or unacknowledged.
• An official strike is a strike organised and recognised by a labour union, as opposed to an unofficial strike at grassroots level.
• An official school is a school administered by the government or by a local authority, as opposite to a private school or religious school.
• An official history, for example of an institution or business, or particularly of a war or military unit, is a history written as a commission, with the assumption of co-operation with access to records and archives; but without necessarily full editorial independence.
• An official biography is usually on the same lines, written with access to private papers and the support of the family of the subject.