Word of the Day: Bureaucracy

Full Definition of BUREAUCRACY

1a :  a body of nonelective government officials

b :  an administrative policy-making group

2:  government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority

3:  a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation

Examples of BUREAUCRACY

1. She was fed up with all the red tape and bureaucracy.
2. Both candidates pledge to simplify the state’s bloated bureaucracy.
3. As Europe slipped deeper into the war, the uranium panel twiddled its thumbs. It was so mired in bureaucracy that by the spring of 1940, it had managed to approve only the $6,000 in research funds earmarked for Fermi and Szilard, so they could purchase uranium and graphite for their fission experiments. —Jennet Conant, Tuxedo Park, 2002

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