memorandum
noun/ˌmɛm.əˈɹæn.dəm/
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin memorandum, neuter of memorandus (“to be remembered”).
1
A short note serving as a reminder.
- ....be more difficult or uncertain than it had been for so many weeks, I had scarcely for a moment adverted to it as necessary, or placed it amongst my memoranda against this parting interview; and my final anxieties being spent in comforting her with hopes, and in pressing upon her the necessity of getting some medicines for a violent cough and hoarseness with which she was troubled, I wholly forgot it until it was too late to recall her.1821, Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater:
2
A written business communication.
- The Trump administration will allow federal workers to promote their religious beliefs to colleagues, display religious items at work and pray together or individually, according to a memorandum issued Monday by the Office of Personnel Management.2025 July 28, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, “Trump administration allows federal workers to promote religious beliefs”, in CNN:
3
A brief diplomatic communication.
4
A page in an annual publication honoring the memory of a person who died during the past year.