bureaucrate

\by.ʁɔ.kʁat\

/\by.ʁɔ.kʁat\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“bureaucrate” is uncommon French (frequency #60,611 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,611
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fonctionnaire confiné dans l’atmosphère des bureaux auxquels il attribue une importance exagérée.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bureaucrate · bureaucrate · French

bureaucrate · rank #60,611 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,611
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH buffer

Nearest frequency peer: buffer (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « bureaucrate »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « bureaucrate » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for bureaucrate
PropertyValue
Headwordbureaucrate
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\by.ʁɔ.kʁat\
Letters11
Frequency rank#60,611
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « bureaucrate » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).bureaucratetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « buffer » (#60,610), « Bussières » (#60,612), « butane » (#60,613). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bureaucrate » est au #60,611. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bureaucrate is uncommon French at frequency #60,611 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \by.ʁɔ.kʁat\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

bureaucrate has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is bureaucrate, spelled B-U-R-E-A-U-C-R-A-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fonctionnaire confiné dans l’atmosphère des bureaux auxquels il attribue une importance exagérée.
  2. 2
    Statut donné à certains contributeurs des wikis utilisant MediaWiki, élus par la communauté des membres, pour assurer la gestion des comptes du site.
  3. 3
    Partisan du parti Bureaucrate, soutien de la monarchie britannique et de la Clique du Château.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bureaucrate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Savez-vous qu’ils ne gagnent pas plus que les maçons, ces dandies bureaucrates qui n’ont pas voulu être ouvriers et qui sont plus misérables que les ouvriers ?
  2. Il avait l’air d’un employé égaré dans une contrée sauvage, et involontairement, on eût regardé s’il ne portait pas une plume à son oreille, comme les caissiers, commis, comptables, et autres variétés de la grande famille des bureaucrates.

Synonyms

buros

This word in other languages

bureaucrat(English)burócrata(Español)Bürokrat(Deutsch)burocrata(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bureaucrate"?
"bureaucrate" is spelled B-U-R-E-A-U-C-R-A-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \by.ʁɔ.kʁat\.
What does "bureaucrate" mean?
As a noun, "bureaucrate" means: Fonctionnaire confiné dans l’atmosphère des bureaux auxquels il attribue une importance exagérée.
How do you pronounce "bureaucrate"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bureaucrate" is \by.ʁɔ.kʁat\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bureaucrate" come from?
"bureaucrate" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bureaucrate", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

cisterciens#60,643commandante#60,655conserverie#60,663consommable#60,664

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list