officiality

[ uh-fish-ee-al-i-tee ]

noun

1. the quality or state of being recognized as authoritative or authorized:

   The officiality of the document was questioned due to missing signatures.

   Despite lacking officiality, the rumor spread quickly through the office.

2. something that is recognized as authoritative or authorized:

   We'll have to get through a speech and a few other officialities, but then we can talk.

Word History and Origins

Origin of officiality¹

First recorded in 1840–45, for the current sense; from Middle French officialité “office of a judge”; equivalent to official ( def ) + -ity ( def )

Example Sentences

Any delay in obeying a summons to the court of the Officiality entailed excommunication with the same result of extortion.

From Project Gutenberg

Captain Pym stiffened back into officiality somewhat.

From Project Gutenberg

Suddenly, she admonished herself for appearing so frivolous, walked to the balustrade, and affected a neutral expression of officiality against the lotus pond's lush background.

From Time Magazine Archive

Poor Bailly, how thy serenely beautiful Philosophizing, with its soft moonshiny clearness and thinness, ends in foul thick confusion—of Presidency, Mayorship, diplomatic officiality, rabid Triviality, and the throat of everlasting Darkness!

From Project Gutenberg

Then farther, sure enough, our Jocelin was a Monk of St. Edmundsbury Convent; held some 'obedientia,' subaltern officiality there, or rather, in succession several; was, for one thing, 'chaplain to my Lord Abbot, living beside him night and day for the space of six years;'—which last, indeed, is the grand fact of Jocelin's existence, and properly the origin of this present Book, and of the chief meaning it has for us now.

From Project Gutenberg