bureaucrat

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈbjʊrəˌkræt/ UK /ˈbjʊərəkræt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
an official who works by fixed routine without exercising judgment

A faceless bureaucrat rejected the form over a typo.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an official who works by... official functionary administratorapparatchikmandarin clerk officeholder

Word family

Derived forms bureaucraticbureaucratize

Related forms bureau bureaucracy

Etymology

From French bureaucrate, from bureau ('desk, office') + -crate ('ruler', from Greek -kratia 'power, rule'). Bureau is from Old French burel, a coarse woolen cloth used to cover desks.

bureau French krátos Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# bureaucrat

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈbjʊrəˌkræt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈbjʊərəkræt/

## Meanings
1. an official who works by fixed routine without exercising judgment

## Examples
- A faceless bureaucrat rejected the form over a typo.

## Synonyms
- official
- functionary
- administrator
- apparatchik
- mandarin
- clerk
- officeholder

## Derived Forms
- bureaucratic
- bureaucratize

## Related Forms
- bureau
- bureaucracy

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: bureau
- Root: krátos

## Etymology
From French bureaucrate, from bureau ('desk, office') + -crate ('ruler', from Greek -kratia 'power, rule'). Bureau is from Old French burel, a coarse woolen cloth used to cover desks.

## AI Etymology
Bureaucrat is from French bureaucrate, from bureau ('desk, office') + -crate ('ruler', from Greek -kratia 'power, rule'). Bureau is from Old French burel, a coarse woolen cloth used to cover desks. Important recorded forms include bureau (French) and krátos (Ancient Greek). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers an official who works by fixed routine without exercising judgment. The wider family includes derived forms such as bureaucratic and bureaucratize and related words such as bureau and bureaucracy.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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