Yeah, Officer leans to uniform man or woman, because an Officer can be a man or a woman Official on the other hand, means "It has been approved". You can say : The spending of new notes, is now official Also, if someone said you can't use the escalator, if the announcement has not being made not to use to the escalator, you can say: It's not official yet, so I can still use the escalator pending the time an official announcement will be made not to use the escalator Do you need more explanation?