Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use bureaucratic in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective

Bureaucratic means of or pertaining to bureaucracy or the actions of bureaucrats. Example: “Thanks to a bureaucratic fait accompli, the demolition was already approved and has already started.”

Examples of bureaucratic by meaning

adjectiveOf or pertaining to bureaucracy or the actions of bureaucrats.

  • All too often he conflicted with British bureaucratic fustiness.2014 March 2, Jan Morris, “Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson...
  • European Union is legalistic, bureaucratic and runs by precedent.2017 December 8, Steven Erlanger, “Brexit Talks Headed for a Second, More Difficult Phase”, in The New York Times
  • “We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl.2025 March 27, Jessica Glenza, “RFK Jr plans 10,000 job cuts in restructuring of US health department”, in The Guardian

More sentences with bureaucratic

  • Thanks to a bureaucratic fait accompli, the demolition was already approved and has already started.From the entry fait accompli
  • My passport application has been stuck in bureaucratic limbo for two weeks.From the entry limbo
  • Another problem was bureaucratic: the transfer of the ship required, literally, an act of Congress.2008, Bill White with Robert Gandt, Intrepid: The Epic Story of America's Most Legendary Warship, page 273. From the entry act of Congress
  • Mutal, 73, has been caught up in the bureaucratic maneuverings to save it.2007 October 2, John Tagliabue, “A New Wave of Support for Anne Frank’s Ailing Tree”, in The New York Times. From the entry maneuvering
  • However, too much nouning makes you sound bureaucratic, immature, and verbally challenged.2000, Andrew J. DuBrin, The complete idiot's guide to leadership. From the entry noun
  • Work—bureaucratic work in particular—poses a series of intractable dilemmas that often demand compromises with traditional moral beliefs.1988, Robert Jackall, “Chapter 1: Moral Probations, Old and New”, in Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers, Twentieth Anniversary…. From the entry intractable
  • Work is recognized insofar as it is "keyboardable" in the bureaucratic world.1985, David L. Altheide, Media power, page 221. From the entry keyboardable
  • I must say Humphrey, these facts are a frightening indictment of bureaucratic sloppiness and self-indulgence.1980 March 10, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “The Economy Drive”, in Yes, Minister, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington). From the entry indictment
  • Certainly emperorism was the value system that provided the foundations of Japanese aggression and bureaucratic fascism.1978, British Association for Japanese Studies, Proceedings of the British Association for Japanese Studies, volumes 3-4, University of…. From the entry emperorism
  • Perhaps that’s why bureaucratic prose becomes so turgid, whatever the bureaucracy.1976, William Zinsser, On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition, Kindle edition, Harper Perennial, published 2012, →ISBN, page 172. From the entry turgid
  • It works well in bureaucratic settings where all the rules are known and you're expected to apply them without question.2025 December 4, Daniel Lemire, “We see something that works, and then we understand it”, in Daniel Lemire's blog, archived from the…. From the entry thinkism
  • Amongst the implications we identify the following: management and leadership; arbitration and advocacy; entitlement and surveillance; bureaucratic maximism and minimalism.2021, Routledge Library Editions: Special Educational Needs, page 166. From the entry maximism
  • They unwittingly lock themselves and their companies into a rigid bureaucratic way of dealing with rules, regulations, and compliance matters.2011, Hillel Glazer, “The Man versus the Money”, in High Performance Operations: Leverage Compliance to Lower Costs, Increase Profits, and…. From the entry paint oneself into a corner
  • S.C. has shielded them with bureaucratic delay and the refusal to rule on our petition and bring them to account.”2007 February 28, Lisa W. Foderaro, “State Agency Criticizes Con Ed for Poor Performance in Two Westchester Windstorms”, in New York Times. From the entry negligency
  • Of particular importance is the bureaucratic organization of European judiciaries.2003, Richard A. Posner, Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy, page 95. From the entry get
  • Now, other than the fact that that is bureaucratic gobblygook written by somebody whose fourth language must be English.2001, United States Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, Foreign operations, export…. From the entry gobblygook
  • The three dispositions are Stalinian bureaucratic socialism, the adventure of the fascisms and the 'Western' deployment of parliamentarisms.1999, Alain Badiou, Manifesto for Philosophy, page 120. From the entry Stalinian
  • Gaining access to such maps means navigating through an interministerial bureaucratic procedure with at least 15 stages of negotiations.1999 July 30, Pallava Bagla, “FREEDOM OF INFORMATION:Indian Scientists Question Government Grip on Data”, in Science, volume 285, number…. From the entry interministerial
  • Much more common was the bureaucratic use of Indian English.1986, McCrum, Robert, William Cran, & Robert MacNeil, The Story of English, Viking Penguin Inc., page 329. From the entry Indian English
  • Much more common was the bureaucratic use of Pakistani English.1986, Robert McCrum, William Cran, Robert MacNeil, The Story of English, Viking Penguin Inc., page 329. From the entry Pakistani English
  • A Cuban who wants to marry a foreigner must traverse a bureaucratic obstacle course designed to discourage such liaisons.1983 April 16, John Kyper, “Cuba: A Little Sex, No Drugs, and Lotsa Rock 'n Roll”, in Gay Community News, page 9. From the entry obstacle course
  • I wrote to Sacramento about that historical marker, and they've been kicking it around their bureaucratic morass for months.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 4, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 67. From the entry morass
  • The Ecclesiastical Commission was generated by Sir Robert Peel and bore the marks of Peel’s personality; bureaucratic, capable and cold.1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 126. From the entry generate
  • The government was so top-heavy and bureaucratic that it created a circus show, a clown world where nothing worked as it was expected.2021 August 3, Zach Vorhies, Kent Heckenlively, Google Leaks: A Whistleblower's Exposé of Big Tech Censorship, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN…. From the entry clown world
  • The idea that a minor bureaucratic restructuring could have made any difference in the time of Trump reflected how immune bureaucratic pettifoggery is to reality.2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 317. From the entry pettifoggery
  • If bureaugamy is the marriage of citizen to the bureaucratic state, then what we really have is an arranged marriage shotgun wedding.2011, November 15, 2011. From the entry bureaugamy
  • The complicated U.S. taxation systems, the bureaucratic madness of the April 15th deadline, drive honest taxpayers insane and most have become taxaphobic.2009, A. Semed Atick, Oh America!: Through The Eyes of an Immigrant, Xlibris, →ISBN. From the entry taxaphobic
  • Tony often contrasted the humanistic ideals of his heroes and teachers with the dry, bureaucratic Gradgrindery which he felt characterised many attempts at educational "reform".2007 April 18, John Bull, “Obituary: Tony Neville”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry Gradgrindery
  • People find it privately rational to invest resources in efforts to secure differentially favored access to the economic power inherent in bureaucratic discretion.2001, James M[cGill] Buchanan, Choice, Contract, and Constitutions (The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan; 16), Indianapolis, Ind.…. From the entry rent-seeking
  • One of them, bureaucratic conservatism, represented the routinized sphere of administration, whereas the other, chiliasm, gave rise to the utopian consciousness and modern politics.1985, Colin Loader, The Intellectual Development of Karl Mannheim, page 104. From the entry chiliasm
  • What I conclude from this admittedly narrow data base is that, while the malaphor flourishes in bureaucratic compost, it will grow just about anywhere.1977, Benefit Payments Report, California Dept. of Benefit Payments, Health and Welfare Agency, →OCLC, page 5. From the entry malaphor
  • And serve the bureaucratic horde right (we thought) if the goat turned out to be a descendant of the Great Black Goat of Buzangay!1948 February 25, D. B. Wyndham Lewis, “Standing By...”, in The Tatler and Bystander, London, page 242, column 1. From the entry hubbuboo
  • In the Marvelverse, mutants are potential victims of hate crimes and of state-sponsored pogroms, and of the sort of bureaucratic prying that is often a prelude to the latter.2008, Roz Kaveney, Superheroes!: Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films, I. B. Tauris Co. Ltd, →ISBN, page 7. From the entry Marvelverse
  • Li Yumei apprenticed for the post of governor-general of the Henan conservancy by serving in a wide range of bureaucratic positions in the Yellow River region.2001, Randall A. Dodgen, “Confucian Engineers”, in Controlling the Dragon: Confucian Engineers and the Yellow River in the Late Imperial…. From the entry Wuzhi
  • This bureaucratic security-minded elite has invariably weathered changes in government by maintaining the personal ties that continue to dominate political life in the newly independent states.1997, Stephen K. Batalden, Sandra L. Batalden, The Newly Independent States of Eurasia: Handbook of Former Soviet Republics, Greenwood…. From the entry Eurasia
  • Challengeless bureaucratic jobs inhibit the normal development of the human personality, thus leading to poor mental health, apathy, and even the delusion that one prefers highly structured work.1986, Clark Kerr, Paul D. Staudohar, Industrial relations in a new age, page 79. From the entry challengeless
  • In Addis Zemen, in particular, the old hortatory pedantics of the need for progress, economic development and bureaucratic efficiency continued even after the change of regime.1983, Girma Negash, Language and Politics: A Comparative Analysis of Revolutionary Rhetoric of Regime Leaders and Power Contenders in…. From the entry pedantics

Meaning of bureaucratic

  1. adjective Of or pertaining to bureaucracy or the actions of bureaucrats.

Full definition of bureaucratic

Questions about bureaucratic in a sentence

How do you use bureaucratic in a sentence?
Bureaucratic is used as an adjective. For example: “Thanks to a bureaucratic fait accompli, the demolition was already approved and has already started.”
What is a short sentence with bureaucratic?
““We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl.”
What does bureaucratic mean?
Bureaucratic means of or pertaining to bureaucracy or the actions of bureaucrats.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bureaucratic (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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