bureaucrats

noun

plural of bureaucrat
as in officials
a worker in a government agency the bureaucrats at the town hall seem to think that we need a building permit to build a tree house

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bureaucrats The bureaucrats who failed to prevent the fraud often remain anonymous. — Sreedhar Potarazu, Baltimore Sun, 19 Aug. 2026 America’s goal should be more cures, more treatment options and better care, not fewer innovations dictated by Washington bureaucrats. — Steve Forbes, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2026 The order directs his administration to toughen air pollution evaluations, add noise restrictions and expand city bureaucrats’ authority to review water and electricity usage at data center facilities. — Jake Sheridan, Chicago Tribune, 17 Aug. 2026 This entails handing out thousands of patronage jobs to rabbis, bureaucrats, undertakers, and inspectors. — Bernard Avishai, New Yorker, 11 Aug. 2026 The bureaucrats in Brussels are struggling to keep up with the breakneck pace of technological progress. — Editorial Board, Washington Post, 4 Aug. 2026 Porter sketched Trotsky holding forth at a conference table, proselytizing to the American bureaucrats. — Dan Chiasson, The New York Review of Books, 1 Aug. 2026 Businesses and bureaucrats got an early indicator this week of whether the World Cup was worth the cost for Los Angeles — beer sales. — Los Angeles Times, 24 July 2026 Several Japanese bureaucrats also died by suicide in recent years in cases linked to overwork. — Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 23 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bureaucrats
  1. officials
  2. employees
  3. clerks
  4. functionaries
  5. workers
Noun
  • By comparison, prior to Warsh taking office, officials averaged roughly 23 public appearances during the same two-week period following each Fed policy meeting since 2022.
    — , CNBC, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Bean urged officials to commit in writing that the library system will provide or fund legal representation for employees who may be targeted under Act 372.
    — Joseph Flaherty, Arkansas Online, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of officials
Noun
  • In Brazil, Statista gathered 900,000 evaluations from employees across a wide range of sectors.
    — Charlotte Hu, Time, 26 Aug. 2026
  • The arbitration added more than $200 million in claim payments to the health insurance plan for state employees and families.
    — Ken Alltucker, USA Today, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of employees
Noun
  • Shillings said the secretary of state's office should provide better tools and training to county clerks to prevent future errors.
    — Hayleigh Colombo, IndyStar, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Turnover within the court itself, particularly among judges and clerks, has contributed to case delays and disorganization, said Michael Sharma-Crawford, a local immigration attorney.
    — Taylor O'Connor, Kansas City Star, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of clerks
Noun
  • Both Washington and Mexico City have launched crackdowns against a complex web of unscrupulous functionaries, front companies and document fraudsters, among others.
    — Foreign Correspondent, Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug. 2026
  • To the extent that their fellow-citizens refer to them at all, our government functionaries are perceived not as active agents of change but as inert, self-protecting obstructions.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 4 July 2026
Definition of functionaries
Noun
  • At the same time, many of these tech companies, like Microsoft and IBM, have been providing accessible professional certificate programs to workers across the globe in hopes of closing the skills gap.
    — Charlotte Hu, Time, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Chesnot | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images The platform at one point served more than 500,000 workers, also referred to as turkers, according to Amazon.
    — Annie Palmer, CNBC, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of workers

Browse Nearby Words

bureaucratic
bureaucrats
bureaus
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Bureaucrats.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bureaucrats. Accessed 3 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

A List of Most Commonly Confused Words

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

Stay Woke

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

The Longest Long Words List

Stay Woke
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All