Word.ws English Dictionary

bureaucratese

bureaucratese noun: a style of language, used by bureaucrats, that involves jargon or euphemism to the detriment of broader understanding.

Noun

bureaucratese (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory, informal) A style of language, used by bureaucrats, that involves jargon or euphemism to the detriment of broader understanding.
    • Help you fill out the application for food stamps and other government programs, break down the discouraging bureaucratese.2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 186
  2. (derogatory, informal) Wordy, ostentatious talk or writing that resembles bureaucratic writing.
    • The company president's annual statement was complete bureaucratese: it was utterly content-free.

Synonyms of bureaucratese

Origin of bureaucratese

From bureaucrat + -ese.

Questions about bureaucratese

What does bureaucratese mean?
Bureaucratese means a style of language, used by bureaucrats, that involves jargon or euphemism to the detriment of broader understanding.
What part of speech is bureaucratese?
Bureaucratese is a noun.

Words near bureaucratese in the dictionary

  1. Bureau-Barrière syndrome
  2. bureau-ocracy
  3. bureaucracies
  4. bureaucracy
  5. bureaucrat
  6. bureaucratese
  7. bureaucratess
  8. bureaucratesses
  9. bureaucratic
  10. bureaucratic centralism
  11. bureaucratic inertia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bureaucratese (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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