bureaucrat
noun
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.
Synonyms of bureaucrat
Examples of bureaucrat in a Sentence
Daniel Brook, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
But some Cubans still revere the 1959 revolution, and, as one foreign official told us, have no desire to humiliate Raúl Castro (Fidel’s 94-year-old brother and a former president), or even Díaz-Canel, who is widely viewed as a weak bureaucrat.
—Sarah Fitzpatrick, The Atlantic, 22 Mar. 2026
There’s no way to collect that money, but don’t be surprised if the city has to hire more bureaucrats to process the late fees.
—Susan Shelley, Daily News, 18 Mar. 2026
There are few things that California politicians and bureaucrats will not tax, subsidize, mandate, regulate and politicize, particularly if such a thing can be connected to environmental policy.
—Adam Summers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Bureaucrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucrat. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
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bureaucrat
noun
