noun
Freq #18457
Meanings
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1
noun
A system of government or management run through many departments and strict official rules.
Reforming the country's bureaucracy will take years.
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2
noun
Complicated official rules and procedures that seem unnecessary and waste time.
Getting a permit involved endless bureaucracy and paperwork.
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3
noun
The officials who run a government or large organization.
The new policy faced resistance from the bureaucracy.
Thesaurus
Word family
Forms
bureaucracies
Derived forms
antibureaucracybureaucratbureaucratesebureaucraticbureaucraticallybureaucratizebureaucrazybureaupathologyeurocracytechnobureaucracy
Related forms
adhocracy
Etymology
From bureau + -cracy, from French bureaucratie, coined by Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay from bureau (“office”) + -cratie (“rule of”).