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
Paul Wiseman, Fortune, 29 Mar. 2026
Imagine what more could have been accomplished had LAUSD bureaucrats not intervened.
—Daniel L Gordon, Daily News, 29 Mar. 2026
In the Philippines, government offices are now open just four days a week and bureaucrats must limit the use of air conditioning to nothing cooler than 75°F (24°C).
—ABC News, 28 Mar. 2026
Rheinmetall was an obvious place for bureaucrats to direct the Zeitenwende funds.
—Simon Shuster, The Atlantic, 27 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for bureaucrat
Cite this Entry
“Bureaucrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucrat. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
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bureaucrat
noun
