technocrat
noun
Did you know?
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
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
Gaza would come under the separate authority of a committee of technocrats with the possibility of eventually becoming part of the Palestinian quasi-state.
—Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Apr. 2025
Rather than militias, this new axis – anchored by the bloc of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, and Egypt – is run by government technocrats and pragmatists who put stability, cross-border economic cooperation, and prosperity first.
—Taylor Luck, Christian Science Monitor, 23 May 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 8 Aug. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share