as in minion
disapproving
a very loyal member of an organization (such as a company or political party) who always obeys orders
party apparatchiks
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Recent Examples of apparatchik
The group ventriloquized the voices of authority—parents, school principals, cops, military officers, judges, politicians, newscasters, Soviet apparatchiks—and turned them into expressions of mass insanity.
—
Andrew Katzenstein, The New York Review of Books, 19 Mar. 2026
Regardless, the new corporate owners of the network, embodied by the late, great Robert Duvall‘s C-suite apparatchik, get on board.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 21 Feb. 2026
This agitprop is vomited out 24/7 by Democrat media apparatchiks who were also unerringly described by Orwell in his novel 1984.
—Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 11 Oct. 2025
Yet those two factions’ usual disdain for smooth political transitions seemed to wane in February, when Hamas elected a military commander, Yehya Sinwar, to serve as its next leader in Gaza, and the longtime apparatchik Mahmoud al-Aloul became Fatah’s first-ever vice president.
—Grant Rumley, Foreign Affairs, 9 Mar. 2017
See All Example Sentences for apparatchik
Andrew Katzenstein, The New York Review of Books, 19 Mar. 2026
Regardless, the new corporate owners of the network, embodied by the late, great Robert Duvall‘s C-suite apparatchik, get on board.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 21 Feb. 2026
This agitprop is vomited out 24/7 by Democrat media apparatchiks who were also unerringly described by Orwell in his novel 1984.
—Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 11 Oct. 2025
Yet those two factions’ usual disdain for smooth political transitions seemed to wane in February, when Hamas elected a military commander, Yehya Sinwar, to serve as its next leader in Gaza, and the longtime apparatchik Mahmoud al-Aloul became Fatah’s first-ever vice president.
—Grant Rumley, Foreign Affairs, 9 Mar. 2017
See All Example Sentences for apparatchik
Recent Examples of Synonyms for apparatchik
Noun
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This is simply an excuse used my Steven Miller and his minions at USCIS to not do the job they have been paid to do.—
Billal Rahman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
3 Dec. 2025
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The big baddies, their minions, and one evil dude.—
Maggie Fremont,
Vulture,
24 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Video has emerged that appears to counter the Israeli military’s account of an incident in which a soldier opened fire on a car carrying a family and killed their 7-month-old baby Sam Abu Haikal.—
Sarah Dean,
NBC news,
12 June 2026
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Namely, the Bavarian flag hides a red Nazi flag, and someone also covered up soldiers, Nazi salutes by passersby, and wreaths on the Mahnmal der Bewegung monument.—
Margherita Bassi,
Popular Science,
11 June 2026
Noun
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Aspiring early retirees of a more modest sort curb their ambitions considerably; the LeanFIRE subset, for example, counts adherents who are saving for subsistence, a nest egg that will cover just their basic necessities.—
Joshua Rivera,
Vanity Fair,
8 June 2026
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Its adherents promote terrorism and sabotage to incite a race war and to bring about social collapse.—
Odette Yousef,
NPR,
27 May 2026
Noun
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Trump wants Americans to believe that his opponents are of this ilk, with his lackeys casting activists as domestic terrorists for merely showing up to protests.—
Gustavo Arellano,
Houston Chronicle,
25 Mar. 2026
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Using new professional management and corporate integration techniques to take advantage of the circular death-spiral, Morgan and his lackeys consolidated 67 percent of the country’s steel production under the umbrella of the largest company the world had ever seen, US Steel.—
Joe Wilkins Published Mar 4,
Futurism,
4 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Apparatchik.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apparatchik. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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