bureaucracy

bureaucracy — noun

1. the network of offices and officials that runs a government or large organizatio

1.nounC2
Definition

the network of offices and officials that runs a government or large organization through fixed steps, paperwork, and clear ranks, often making simple matters slow and complicated.

Example

The hospital's bureaucracy kept Leila waiting three months for a wheelchair.

possessive pattern: the hospital's bureaucracy

City bureaucracy made Bao get five stamps before opening the shop.

bureaucracy + made + object + verb

Common collocations
  • government bureaucracy
  • city bureaucracy
  • layers of bureaucracy
  • cut through bureaucracy
  • reduce bureaucracy
  • get stuck in bureaucracy
Synonyms
  • administration

    more neutral; can simply mean the way an organization is managed

  • red tape

    focuses on annoying rules and paperwork rather than the whole structure

  • officialdom

    formal and critical; stresses officials as a group

  • civil service

    usually means government employees themselves, especially in one country

Grammar Patterns

bureaucracy of + organization

layers of bureaucracy

Usage Note

Usually modified by the place or institution involved, as in government bureaucracy, city bureaucracy, or university bureaucracy. Often carries a negative tone and appears with verbs such as cut through, reduce, complain about, or get stuck in.

Common Mistakes

The bureaucracy sent me the email yesterday.
A clerk in the bureaucracy sent me the email yesterday.
bureaucracy usually names the whole system, not one individual worker.

Word family

  • bureaucratic
    adjectiveC1
  • bureaucrat
    nounC2
  • bureaucratically
    adverbC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

For this sense, bureaucracy often sounds more critical than administration. Administration can simply mean the management of a school, company, or government, while bureaucracy suggests too many offices, forms, and slow procedures. Red tape is narrower: it points to the frustrating rules and paperwork inside the system, not the whole structure. Officialdom is formal and strongly negative, focusing on officials as a class. Civil service usually means the body of state employees, especially as a profession, and is not always critical. You might complain about hospital bureaucracy, but say the civil service needs more staff, or that one permit was delayed by red tape.

administration ↗red tape ↗officialdomcivil service

Common collocations

Nouns

  • government bureaucracy
  • state bureaucracy
  • federal bureaucracy
  • university bureaucracy

Phrases

  • cut through bureaucracy
  • layers of bureaucracy
  • stuck in bureaucracy

Prepositions

  • bureaucracy of
  • bureaucracy in

Etymology

FrenchGreekEnglish

This word was formed in French in the eighteenth century from bureau, meaning a desk or office, and a Greek-based ending meaning rule or power. It first referred to rule by officials working through offices, and later widened in English to mean any system dominated by formal procedures, paperwork, and chains of authority.