as in Pentagonese
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for governmentese
Noun
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Not his first blockbuster deal This isn’t Gore’s first time doing the song and dance of being traded.—
SportsDay Staff,
Dallas Morning News,
22 Jan. 2026 -
Just stop with this whole song and dance between Kuminga and Steve Kerr.—
Zach Harper,
New York Times,
5 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Lawyers and Uber are also battling over legalese about who would be responsible for paying medical bills after a crash.—
Levi Sumagaysay,
Mercury News,
24 Feb. 2026
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To be clear, some of the legalese will take time to iron out, because Mercury will go retrograde on February 26.—
Steph Koyfman,
Condé Nast Traveler,
29 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Details of new initiatives were bogged down by mind-numbing bureaucratese.—
Sharon Grigsby,
Dallas News,
11 Apr. 2023
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The most striking aspect of Putin’s failure to accept responsibility for the Kursk disaster was his retreat into bureaucratese.—
Masha Gessen,
The New Yorker,
18 Mar. 2020
Noun
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The overly earnest character speaks in a hilariously cringey Gen Z self-help psychobabble that continuously grates on Enrique’s nerves.—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
30 May 2025
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Sometimes, such content might be portrayed as being valid psychological science versus non-sensical psychobabble.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
11 Apr. 2025
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“Governmentese.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/governmentese. Accessed 4 Mar. 2026.
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