Meaning & use
clerical assistant
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Meaning
nouncountable
A junior office worker who handles routine paperwork, such as filing, typing, answering the phone and entering data.
Grammar: Countable: a clerical assistant, several clerical assistants.
Patterns
- a clerical assistant at somewhere
- a clerical assistant in something
She works as a clerical assistant at the town hall.
The clinic is hiring a clerical assistant to manage patient records.
As a clerical assistant, he filed documents and answered calls all day.
Word forms
| plural | clerical assistants |
|---|
Common combinations
- work as a clerical assistant
- He worked as a clerical assistant while studying.
- hire a clerical assistant
- The firm plans to hire a clerical assistant.
- part-time clerical assistant
- She took a part-time clerical assistant job.
- clerical assistant position
- The clerical assistant position closes on Friday.
Synonyms and how they differ
- office assistant
- Office assistant is the more common American term and may include light reception duties.
- administrative assistant
- An administrative assistant usually has more responsibility, such as organizing schedules for managers.
- clerk
- A clerk is a more general word and may handle records in a shop, court or bank.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: clerical assistant or clerical?
clerical assistant vs clerical
Clerical describes office or administrative work, and can also mean relating to priests; the context tells you which.
Practice
A clerical assistant would most likely spend the day ___.
Choose one answer.
Clerical assistants handle routine office paperwork. The other options describe different professions.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “clerical assistant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.