bureaucrat

noun

bu·​reau·​crat ˈbyu̇r-ə-ˌkrat How to pronounce bureaucrat (audio)
ˈbyər-
: a member of a bureaucracy
government bureaucrats

Did you know?

In French, a bureau is a desk, so bureaucracy means basically "government by people at desks". Despite the bad-mouthing they often get, partly because they usually have to stick so close to the rules, bureaucrats do almost all the day-to-day work that keeps a government running. The idea of a bureaucracy is to split up the complicated task of governing a large country into smaller jobs that can be handled by specialists. Bureaucratic government is nothing new; the Roman empire had an enormous and complex bureaucracy, with the bureaucrats at lower levels reporting to bureaucrats above them, and so on up to the emperor himself.

Examples of bureaucrat in a Sentence

the bureaucrats at the town hall seem to think that we need a building permit to build a tree house
Recent Examples on the Web China has announced a raft of measures to resuscitate a plateauing economy, even as the country's new premier warns its legions of bureaucrats to gird themselves for a period of fiscal austerity ahead. Emily Feng, NPR, 5 Mar. 2024 Amid fierce resistance from farmers, Brussel’s bureaucrats have been forced into their first significant policy climbdown from ever-escalating climate regulations. Tilak Doshi, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024 Under the surface, many entrepreneurs are rising and slowly gaining political clout and access to key bureaucrats and politicians, some of whom are sympathetic to new companies, given Japan’s dire economic needs. Richard Katz, Foreign Affairs, 31 Jan. 2024 Lamenting obstructive Pentagon bureaucrats is a trope of tech pitches, one that plays well in the media. Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 20 Jan. 2024 The government has become so bloated that office buildings in DC have become breeding grounds for bureaucrats’ personal agendas at our expense. Charlotte Observer, 29 Feb. 2024 Mention Belmopan, Belize’s capital that sits deep in the country’s interior, and many Belizeans will belittle the city as a bastion of pencil-pushing bureaucrats that’s not just dull, but also devoid of nightlife. Simon Romero Alejandro Cegarra, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2024 That means state bureaucrats exercise no control over groundwater resources in vast rural swaths of Arizona. Sasha Hupka, The Arizona Republic, 31 Jan. 2024 As with the tax system, frontline bureaucrats apply the rules in flexible, personalized ways. Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bureaucrat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French bureaucrate, after bureaucratie — more at bureaucracy, -crat

First Known Use

1832, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bureaucrat was in 1832

Dictionary Entries Near bureaucrat

Cite this Entry

“Bureaucrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucrat. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

bureaucrat

noun
bu·​reau·​crat ˈbyu̇r-ə-ˌkrat How to pronounce bureaucrat (audio)
: a member of a bureaucracy

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