word-vault/dist/data/cards/bu/bureaucracy.json

A lightweight JavaScript package for English word definitions and collections.

{
    "term": "bureaucracy",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox5000": true,
    "cefr": "c1",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "the system of official rules and ways of doing things that a government or an organization has, especially when these seem to be too complicated",
            "labels": "(often disapproving)",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "**unnecessary/excessive bureaucracy**"
                },
                {
                    "text": "We need to reduce paperwork and bureaucracy in the company."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The organization has promised to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Family doctors have suffered from increasing bureaucracy."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Small businesses fear that complying with the code will lead to excessive bureaucracy and costs."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Politics"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["cumbersome", "excessive", "unnecessary"],
                "verb + bureaucracy": ["cut", "eliminate", "reduce"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "a system of government in which there are a large number of state officials who are not elected; a country with such a system",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "the power of the state bureaucracy"
                },
                {
                    "text": "We are living in a modern bureaucracy."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The local bureaucracy was not pleased by the new proposals."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Many people believed that the state bureaucracy was corrupt."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Many of these states have large public bureaucracies of civil servants."
                },
                {
                    "text": "He had considerable influence over the top levels of the vast bureaucracy."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Politics"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["huge", "large", "massive"]
            }
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/bjʊəˈrɒkrəsi/",
                "audio": "bu/bureaucracy/bureaucracy__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/bjʊˈrɑːkrəsi/",
                "audio": "bu/bureaucracy/bureaucracy__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "early 19th cent.: from French bureaucratie, from bureau, originally ‘baize’ (used to cover writing desks), from Old French burel, probably from bure ‘dark brown’, based on Greek purros ‘red’."
}