Receptionist

//ɹɪˈsep.ʃə.nɪst// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An employee (such as a secretary) who works in reception (receiving visitors and/or calls) for a person or business, especially an office.

    ""At the moment, I think I'm working for the Central Intelligence Corporation, the Mafia, and Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong." "I see," the receptionist, making a note."

  2. 2
    a secretary whose main duty is to answer the telephone and receive visitors wordnet
  3. 3
    A proponent of receptionism.

Synonyms

All synonyms
doorkeeperhostjanitorlandlordporterusher

Example

More examples

"The receptionist forced me to sign my name on the paper."

Etymology

Recorded since 1901, derived from reception + -ist.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.