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bureaucracy
6 dictionary results for: bureaucracy
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
bu·reauc·ra·cy       [byoo-rok-ruh-see] Pronunciation Key
–noun, plural -cies.
1.government by many bureaus, administrators, and petty officials.
2.the body of officials and administrators, esp. of a government or government department.
3.excessive multiplication of, and concentration of power in, administrative bureaus or administrators.
4.administration characterized by excessive red tape and routine.
[Origin: 1810–20; bureau + -cracy, modeled on F bureaucratie]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
bu·reauc·ra·cy       (byŏŏ-rŏk'rə-sē)  Pronunciation Key 
n.   pl. bu·reauc·ra·cies
    1. Administration of a government chiefly through bureaus or departments staffed with nonelected officials.
    2. The departments and their officials as a group: promised to reorganize the federal bureaucracy.
    3. Management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures: The new department head did not know much about bureaucracy.
    4. The administrative structure of a large or complex organization: a midlevel manager in a corporate bureaucracy.
    1. Management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures: The new department head did not know much about bureaucracy.
    2. The administrative structure of a large or complex organization: a midlevel manager in a corporate bureaucracy.
  3. An administrative system in which the need or inclination to follow rigid or complex procedures impedes effective action: innovative ideas that get bogged down in red tape and bureaucracy.


[French bureaucratie : bureau, office; see bureau + -cratie, rule (from Old French; see -cracy).]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
bureaucracy 
1818, from Fr. bureaucratie, from bureau "office," lit. "desk" (see bureau) + Gk. suffix -kratia denoting "power of;" coined by Fr. economist Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-59). Bureaucrat is from 1842; bureaucratic is from 1836.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
bureaucracy

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

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
bureaucracy [(byoo-rok-ruh-see)]

A formal, hierarchical organization with many levels in which tasks, responsibilities, and authority are delegated among individuals, offices, or departments, held together by a central administration. According to many sociologists and anthropologists, the development of bureaucratic organizations is necessary for the emergence of any modern civilization. (See Max Weber.)

Note: Today, the term bureaucracy suggests a lack of initiative, excessive adherence to rules and routine, red tape, inefficiency, or, even more serious, an impersonal force dominating the lives of individuals. (See Big Brother is watching you.)

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Bureaucracy

Bu*reau"cra*cy\, n. [Bureau + Gr. ? to be strong, to govern, ? strength: cf. F. bureaucratie.]

1. A system of carrying on the business of government by means of departments or bureaus, each under the control of a chief, in contradiction to a system in which the officers of government have an associated authority and responsibility; also, government conducted on this system.

2. Government officials, collectively.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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