Word.ws English Dictionary

politicianese

politicianese noun: political jargon; the obfuscatory or euphemistic language used by politicians.

Noun

politicianese (uncountable)

  1. Political jargon; the obfuscatory or euphemistic language used by politicians.
    • In journalese and politicianese every warning is grave, every destruction wanton, every feeling sensibly felt[…]1923, Edward Willmore, “Preface”, in Cromwell, the Protector: A Play, page vii
    • This is fine, of course, but somewhat vague, illusory and politicianese.1931 June 1, The Daily Messenger, Madisonville, Ky., page four

Examples of politicianese in a sentence

  • Political Notes doesn’t know what that means in French or Chinese, but in Politicianese it means: “There simply can’t be any valid criticism against our man so we ain’t answering nuttin’.”1946 May 5, “Iowa Political Notes”, in The Cedar Rapids Gazette, volume 64, number 116, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, four, page 2:
  • You gotta love it when they speak politicianese.1998, Harlan Coben, One False Move (Myron Bolitar series), Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 105:
  • She might speak fluent politicianese, but she never talked down to her correspondents.2013, Jody Lynn Nye, Robert Asprin’s Dragons Run, New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN:

Synonyms of politicianese

Origin of politicianese

From politician + -ese.

Questions about politicianese

What does politicianese mean?
Politicianese means political jargon; the obfuscatory or euphemistic language used by politicians.
How do you use politicianese in a sentence?
Political Notes doesn’t know what that means in French or Chinese, but in Politicianese it means: “There simply can’t be any valid criticism against our man so we ain’t answering nuttin’.”
What part of speech is politicianese?
Politicianese is a noun.

Words near politicianese in the dictionary

  1. politicalspeak
  2. politicaster
  3. politicasters
  4. politicese
  5. politician
  6. politicianese
  7. politicianess
  8. politicianesses
  9. politicianlike
  10. politicianly
  11. politicians

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: politicianese (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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