bureaucracy

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun nonelective government officials
noun a government that is administered primarily by bureaus that are staffed with nonelective officials
noun any organization in which action is obstructed by insistence on unnecessary procedures and red tape

From bureau + -cracy, from French bureaucratie, coined by Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay from bureau (“office”) + -cratie (“rule of”).

I like my work, I don't like the bureaucracy that goes with it. — Terminal Compromise, Winn Schwartau
But the Japanese bureaucracy does not desire to have the light let in on this inconvenient circumstance. — The Problem of China, Bertrand Russell
Normally I curse the paper tangles of bureaucracy, but this was one time when I blessed them all. — The Misplaced Battleship, Harry Harrison

bureaucratism

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