Word.ws English Dictionary

officialese

UK/ə.fɪ.ʃəˈliːz/

officialese noun: the typical language of officials or official documents; legalistic and pompous language.

Noun

officialese (countable and uncountable, plural officialeses)

  1. The typical language of officials or official documents; legalistic and pompous language.
    • These were men, the chronicler continued, who ‘spoke pleasantly’, in the smooth officialese that most of Henry's counsellors were accustomed to deploy […]2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 263
    • But while using officialese might give your writing the outward appearance of being thorough and correct, that doesn't mean there's anything happening underneath. Officialese is a kind of defense mechanism. It's rooted in the fear of getting something wrong, or leaving something out, or looking...2021, Tom Albrighton, How to Write Clearly […] , ABC Business Communications Ltd, →ISBN, page 144
    Synonyms:
    bureaucratese

officialese meaning in Urdu

officialese in Urdu

دفتر شاہی کی زبان

Synonyms of officialese

Forms of officialese

pluralofficialeses

Origin of officialese

From official + -ese.

Questions about officialese

What does officialese mean?
Officialese means the typical language of officials or official documents; legalistic and pompous language.
What is officialese in Urdu?
Officialese in Urdu is دفتر شاہی کی زبان. See Officialese meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is officialese?
Officialese is a noun.
How do you pronounce officialese?
Officialese is pronounced /ə.fɪ.ʃəˈliːz/ (UK).
What is the plural of officialese?
The plural of officialese is officialeses.

Words near officialese in the dictionary

  1. officialate
  2. officialates
  3. officialdom
  4. officialdoms
  5. officiales
  6. officialese
  7. officialeses
  8. officialhood
  9. officialis
  10. officialisation
  11. officialise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: officialese (page history and authors); officialese (Urdu Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “officialese.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/officialese. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.