English Explanatory Dictionary

functionary

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A person employed as an official in a bureaucracy (usually corporate or governmental) who holds limited authority and primarily serves to carry out a simple function for which discretion is minimal or not required.
  2. Such a person who is petty, pedantic, short-sighted, uncaring, or counterproductive; sometimes also with implication of being amoral or corrupt.

Pronunciation

/ˈfʌŋ(k).ʃn̩.(ə)ri/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-functionary.wav /ˈfʌŋ(k).ʃəˌnɛ.ri/

Word forms

functionary functionaries

Etymology

From French fonctionnaire; by surface analysis, function + -ary.

Synonyms

bureaucrat official officer administrator apparatchik paper-pusher bean counter
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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