administrationese
/ədmɪnəˌstɹejʃəˈniːz/
administrationese noun: the jargon used in administration.
Noun
administrationese (uncountable)
- The jargon used in administration.
- It seems strange to have to ask, but suddenly we wonder… […] -why administrators, in their peculiar administrationese, ask for "student input"--and then tell lus^([sic]) our options are foreclosed?1977 December 16, “Commentary”, in The Goucher Weekly, volume 63, number 12, page 2
- Chairs and faculty members quickly learn that deans speak in strange tongues (ICLMs [Induced Course Load Matrices], FTEs [Full-Time Equivalents], and outcomes are administrationese from three different decades).1994 April 1, Dealing With the Dean, “Dealing With the Dean”, in ADFL Bulletin, volume 25, number 3, →DOI, page 12b of 11–16
- Synonyms:
- administrationspeak, adminspeak, adminese
Synonyms of administrationese
Origin of administrationese
From administration + -ese.
Questions about administrationese
- What does administrationese mean?
- Administrationese means the jargon used in administration.
- What part of speech is administrationese?
- Administrationese is a noun.
- How do you pronounce administrationese?
- Administrationese is pronounced /ədmɪnəˌstɹejʃəˈniːz/.
Words near administrationese in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: administrationese (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-administrationese.wav.
Cite this entry: “administrationese.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/administrationese. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.