politicese
politicese noun: political jargon, language used by politicians.
Noun
politicese (uncountable)
- Political jargon, language used by politicians.
- There is scarcely a section of Republican or Democratic platform that a voter would refuse to accept. In the words of Dr. Holmes, they excel in “saying undisputed things in a solemn way.” But that is typical of politicese, the language used by platform makers.1920 March 18, E. W. Anibal, “To-Day’s Prize Letter”, in New York Tribune, volume LXXIX, number 26,786, page 9
- They had hoped to get General Eisenhower to act as their chief inducer. But the General said “No.” After careful and accurate translation from English into the “politicese” this was interpreted to mean—“No.”1948 July 15, “How to Win an Election (Maybe)”, in The Modoc Country and Surprise Valley Record, volume 56, number 19
- Synonyms:
- politicianese
Synonyms of politicese
Forms of politicese
| alternative form | politickese |
|---|
Origin of politicese
From politic + -ese.
Questions about politicese
- What does politicese mean?
- Politicese means political jargon, language used by politicians.
- What part of speech is politicese?
- Politicese is a noun.
Words near politicese in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: politicese (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: “politicese.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/politicese. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.