OFFICIALLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does officially mean? 

• OFFICIALLY (adverb)
  The adverb OFFICIALLY has 2 senses:

1. in an official role

2. with official authorization

  Familiarity information: OFFICIALLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OFFICIALLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In an official role

Context example:

officially responsible

Antonym:

unofficially (not in an official capacity)

Pertainym:

official (conforming to set usage, procedure, or discipline)

Sense 2

Meaning:

With official authorization

Synonyms:

formally; officially

Context example:

the club will be formally recognized

Pertainym:

official (having official authority or sanction)

 Context examples 

He was a good fellow, but his rejoicing at the one little part—in which he was officially interested—of so great a tragedy, was an object-lesson in the limitations of sympathetic understanding.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Officially named Westerhout 40 (W40), the butterfly is a nebula - a giant cloud of gas and dust in space where new stars may form.

('Space Butterfly' Is Home to Hundreds of Baby Stars, NASA)

The definition of an international unit is generally arbitrary and technical, and has to be officially approved by the International Conference for Unification of Formulae.

(International Unit, NCI Thesaurus)

The officially recommended physical activity duration of 150 minutes per week was associated with significantly better cognition and less Alzheimer's disease pathology in ADAD.

(Rare Alzheimer's Disease Patients May Delay Cognitive Decline with Exercise, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Mercury retrograde, which started officially on October 31 and will go until November 20, was certainly not helping matters.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

After a more than nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to Pluto, it’s show time for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, as the flyby sequence of science observations is officially underway.

(A “Heart” from Pluto as Flyby Begins, NASA)

The comet—officially named 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková—belongs to the Jupiter family of comets, frequent orbiters that loop around the Sun about every five to seven years.

(NASA Telescope Studies Quirky Comet 45P, NASA)

Ever since registers began being made, c. 1500, 139 plant species were officially cataloged as extinct.

(Species native to Brazil savanna likely to face extinction, Agência Brasil)

The loss or lack of continuation of subject participation after a study has officially closed.

(Lost To Follow-up, NCI Thesaurus)

Cassini officially began its new set of equatorial orbits on March 16.

(Saturn Spacecraft Returns to the Realm of Icy Moons, NASA)