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.
Examples of bureaucrat in a Sentence
Valeriya Safronova, New York Times, 31 Dec. 2024
Tullock’s famous quip comes to mind as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues in its ongoing efforts to abolish financial scams that its bureaucrats apparently lack the skills to rid society of on their own.
—John Tamny, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2024
The implication was that any competent private-sector manager could do a better job than the politicians and bureaucrats who only served themselves.
—Ron Elving, NPR, 7 Dec. 2024
This includes bureaucrats in D.C., but also healthcare workers and others who administer benefits to veterans across the country.
—Matt Robison, Newsweek, 21 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for bureaucrat 
Dictionary Entries Near bureaucrat
Cite this Entry
“Bureaucrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucrat. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.
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bureaucrat
noun
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