Secretary General
"secretary-general" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Secretary General” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The chief administrator of an international body such as NATO or the United Nations.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Secretary General |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Secretary General” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Secretary General is 17 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Secretary General, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of French secrétaire général, hence the unusual order of adjective following noun (i.e., postpositive). The correct English form is Secretary General, spelled S-E-C-R-E-T-A-R-Y- -G-E-N-E-R-A-L.
Definition
- 1The chief administrator of an international body such as NATO or the United Nations.
- 2The secretary of a non-Communist political party, governmental entity, or other NGO in many countries.
Etymology
Calque of French secrétaire général, hence the unusual order of adjective following noun (i.e., postpositive).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Secretary General"?
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Using “Secretary General”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-C-R-E-T-A-R-Y- -G-E-N-E-R-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.