bureaucracy
/bjʊˈɹɑ.kɹə.si/noun
bureaucracy is spelled B-U-R-E-A-U-C-R-A-C-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is beaurocracy: about 700 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Bureaucracy is a noun meaning “Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers”. The plural of bureaucracy is bureaucracies.
How many letters and syllables are in bureaucracy?
| Letters | 11: B-U-R-E-A-U-C-R-A-C-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.5 times per million words; the 13,897th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, beaurocracy, about 700 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell bureaucracy?
Bureaucracy is spelled B-U-R-E-A-U-C-R-A-C-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 12 of the searches for bureaucracy in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is bureaucracy?
Bureaucracy appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 13,897th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce bureaucracy?
- UK /bjʊəˈɹɒk.ɹə.si/
- US /bjʊˈɹɑ.kɹə.si/
- US /bjɚˈɹɑ.kɹə.si/
Bureaucracy has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-bureaucracy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with bureaucracy?
8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bureaucracy from its last stressed vowel (/ɑkɹəsi/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of bureaucracy
- bureaucracies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bureaucracy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers.
- 2
A system of administration based upon organisation into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc., designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner.
At that time the administration replaced the system of patronage in the civil service with a bureaucracy.
- 3
The body of officers and administrators, especially of a government.
The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. (apocryphal quip)
- 4
derogatoryExcessive red tape and routine in any administration, body or behaviour.
The head of the civil service promised to clamp down on bureaucracy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bureaucracy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bureaucratie |
| German | Beamtentum, Bürokratie , Verwaltungsapparat , Beamtenapparat , Bürokratisierung |
| Portuguese | burocracia , oficialismo |
| Spanish | burocracia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.