Definition of protonotary

• n. - A chief notary or clerk.
• n. - Formerly, a chief clerk in the Court of King's Bench and in the Court of Common Pleas, now superseded by the master.
• n. - A register or chief clerk of a court in certain States of the United States.
• n. - Formerly, one who had the charge of writing the acts of the martyrs, and the circumstances of their death; now, one of twelve persons, constituting a college in the Roman Curia, whose office is to register pontifical acts and to make and preserve the official record of beatifications.
• n. - The chief secretary of the patriarch of Constantinople.
• n. - Same as Prothonotary.