Word.ws English Dictionary

quango

Syllables: quan·go/ˈkwæŋ.ɡəʊ/

quango noun: an organization that, although financed by a government, acts independently of it.

Noun

quango (plural quangos)

  1. (UK, derogatory, often) An organization that, although financed by a government, acts independently of it.
    • The strongest link to the State, however, occurs with quangos, (quasi-NGOs), and the many umbrella groups that also thrive on State support. Many of the new parties realized after their Sturm und Drang years that they still needed regular contacts with the 'civil' world and that their civilian...1998, Ferenc Miszlivetz; Katalin Ertsey, “Hungary: Civil Society in the Post-Socialist World”, in Alison van Rooy, editor, Civil Society and the Aid Industry: The Politics and Promise, London...
    • Various state committees and quangos had had stands; government and opposition ministers had attended.2009, China Miéville, The City & The City

Forms of quango

pluralquangos
alternative formQUANGO

Origin of quango

From the initial letters (the first two letters for the first word) of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization. Coined by American president of the Carnegie Foundation Alan Pifer in 1967.

Words formed from quango

Words that rhyme with quango

Questions about quango

What does quango mean?
Quango means an organization that, although financed by a government, acts independently of it.
What part of speech is quango?
Quango is a noun.
How do you pronounce quango?
Quango is pronounced /ˈkwæŋ.ɡəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of quango?
The plural of quango is quangos.

Words near quango in the dictionary

  1. Quang-si
  2. Quang-tong
  3. Quangang
  4. Quanglican
  5. Quanglicans
  6. quango
  7. quangocracies
  8. quangocracy
  9. quangocrat
  10. quangocrats
  11. quangoism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quango (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-quango.wav.

Cite this entry: “quango.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quango. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.