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bureaucrat

noun
bu·​reau·​crat | \ ˈbyu̇r-ə-ˌkrat How to pronounce bureaucrat (audio) , ˈbyər-\

Definition of bureaucrat

: a member of a bureaucracy government bureaucrats
Synonyms Did You Know? More Example Sentences Learn More about bureaucrat

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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

 So many of the current generation are just Baathist bureaucrats [Saddam-era civil servants]. — Peter Schwartzstein, Smithsonian, "What the Restoration of Iraq’s Oldest University Says About the Nation’s Future," 4 Sep. 2019 Especially now, as a cynical establishment seeks restoration, as establishment Kemalist bureaucrats run for cover, and as the divisions in our nation widen and public discourse sounds like rival packs of angry barking dogs. — John Kass, Twin Cities, "John Kass: ‘Ball of Collusion’ thoughtfully connects the dots on Clinton and Obama," 29 Aug. 2019 In 1992, Waterbury Mayor Joseph Santopietro, then Connecticut’s youngest mayor, was convicted in a payoff conspiracy with six political associates and a dozen or so bankers, lawyers and city bureaucrats. — courant.com, "Welcome to Corrupticut: A look back at the history of corrupt politicians in Connecticut," 25 June 2019 In former lives, these people were engineers, bankers, and bureaucrats of the old apartheid state, which employed more than half of Afrikaners. — Gregory Barber, WIRED, "Inside an All-White Town’s Divisive Experiment With Cryptocurrency," 6 June 2019 Similarly repetitive and ridiculous are the many scenes of heroic scientists confronting intransigent bureaucrats by explicitly criticizing the Soviet system of decision-making. — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, "What HBO’s “Chernobyl” Got Right, and What It Got Terribly Wrong," 4 June 2019 After all, those sipping the tea were wealthy and thus successful, while the dolts reading think tank reports were just bureaucrats, one Administration official groused. — Philip Elliott, Time, "Inside Donald Trump's Twitter-Fueled Weekend Meltdown," 20 Feb. 2018 University bureaucrats worry about the upheaval involved in Labour’s proposal. — The Economist, "Labour plans a shake-up of English university admissions," 17 Aug. 2019 Having bureaucrats lose their jobs might make some people feel better, might even be necessary. — Kevin Cullen, BostonGlobe.com, "At the Registry of Motor Vehicles, deadly inefficiency," 2 July 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bureaucrat.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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First Known Use of bureaucrat

1832, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for bureaucrat

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

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More Definitions for bureaucrat

bureaucrat

noun
How to pronounce bureaucrat (audio)

English Language Learners Definition of bureaucrat

often disapproving : a person who is one of the people who run a government or big company and who does everything according to the rules of that government or company : a person who is part of a bureaucracy

See the full definition for bureaucrat in the English Language Learners Dictionary

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