Word family noun office officer official officialdom officialese officiousness adjective official ≠ unofficial officious verb officiate adverb officially ≠ unofficially officiously
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishofficialdomof‧fi‧cial‧dom /əˈfɪʃəldəm/ noun [uncountable] PGOgovernment departments or the people who work in them – used when you think they are not helpful → bureaucracyExamples from the Corpus
officialdom• And officialdom shows disturbing signs of believing the flattery.• Tired of traffic, incorporation spats, breezy officialdom and the dead office air?• Why do we have to be so humiliated by officialdom?• Mr Ueberroth got still less help from officialdom.• He had seen this aspect of officialdom before.• They like to see officialdom and the upper classes getting a kick up the backside.• Dealing with Soviet officialdom one became used to surprises.• It would simply mean that officialdom, and his country, had forgiven him. 