technocrat
noun
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In 1919 W. H. Smyth coined the term technocracy to mean basically "management of society by technical experts". Technocracy grew into a movement during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when politicians and financial institutions were being blamed for the economic disaster, and fans of technocracy claimed that letting technical experts manage the country would be a great improvement. (They also suggested that dollars could be replaced by "energy certificates" representing energy units called ergs.) Today technocrat and technocratic are still popular words for experts with a highly rational and scientific approach to public policy issues. But these experts aren't always the best politicians, and when a terrific technological solution to a problem is opposed by a powerful group or industry, lawmakers find it easier to just ignore it.
Examples of technocrat in a Sentence
Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 4 Aug. 2025
Since stepping down as president in 2012 to allow Putin to return to the post, Medvedev has transformed himself from a relatively liberal technocrat into an uber-nationalist, taunting Russia’s adversaries with provocative social media posts.
—Tim Lister, CNN Money, 3 Aug. 2025
The president's office named 22 ministers, many of whom were technocrats.
—Arkansas Online, 31 Mar. 2025
Alas, technocrats keep grinding away at products that aim to increase your quality of life by a few percentage points by cutting out friction and inconvenience.
—Pete Cottell, Wired News, 17 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for technocrat
Cite this Entry
“Technocrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technocrat. Accessed 28 Aug. 2025.
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