Bureaucracy

Quick meaning: Bureaucracy is a noun meaning Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers.

Meaning

Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers.

More Meanings

1. The body of officers and administrators, especially of a government.
2. (business, organizational theory) A system of administration based upon organisation into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc., designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner.
3. (chiefly derogatory) Excessive red tape and routine in any administration, body or behaviour.

Example Sentences

The head of the civil service promised to clamp down on bureaucracy.

The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. (apocryphal quip)

At that time the administration replaced the system of patronage in the civil service with a bureaucracy.

However, when Britain left the European Union, ferries started to ply a direct sea link from Ireland, to save hauliers from custom's bureaucracy of driving via Britain.

Word Forms

• bureaucracies
• bureaucratie
• bureau-ocracy
• burocracy

Synonyms for bureaucracy

Depending on context, synonyms include papyrocracy, bureaucratism.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include bureaucratism, bureaucratic, bureaucratization, bureaucratisation, bureaucrat, officialdom.

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