bureaucrat
noun
Did you know?
In French, a bureau is a desk, so bureaucracy means basically "government by people at desks". Despite the bad-mouthing they often get, partly because they usually have to stick so close to the rules, bureaucrats do almost all the day-to-day work that keeps a government running. The idea of a bureaucracy is to split up the complicated task of governing a large country into smaller jobs that can be handled by specialists. Bureaucratic government is nothing new; the Roman empire had an enormous and complex bureaucracy, with the bureaucrats at lower levels reporting to bureaucrats above them, and so on up to the emperor himself.
Synonyms of bureaucrat
Examples of bureaucrat in a Sentence
Jesse Plunkett, The Orlando Sentinel, 2 May 2026
Take away the competition, substitute bureaucrats for private ownership, and the mess starts.
—Star Parker, Boston Herald, 2 May 2026
The difference came because, as the New York Times noted, the 33-year-old bureaucrat-slash-law student didn’t go all-in wagering on Daily Doubles like Holzhauer had.
—Assistant Editor, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2026
When city bureaucrats saw as liabilities schools that had been denied resources, parents saw community anchors.
—Stacy Davis Gates, Chicago Tribune, 19 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for bureaucrat
Cite this Entry
“Bureaucrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucrat. Accessed 6 May. 2026.
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bureaucrat
noun
