From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbureaucracybu‧reauc‧ra‧cy /bjʊəˈrɒkrəsi $ bjʊˈrɑː-/ ●○○ noun (plural bureaucracies) 1 [uncountable]PGCOMPLICATED a complicated official system that is annoying or confusing because it has a lot of rules, processes etc → red tape the reduction of unnecessary bureaucracy2 [countable, uncountable]PG the officials who are employed rather than elected to do the work of a government, business etc
Examples from the Corpus
bureaucracy• In fact, without evolutionary and learning pressures, the society of mind in a brain would turn into a bureaucracy.• He disliked committee procedures and bureaucracy.• The Bill perpetuates all the anomalies, unfairness, regional variations and bureaucracy that made the poll tax unpopular.• The EU bureaucracy in Brussels has grown in size and authority.• The company's huge bureaucracy limits creativity and independent thinking.• The organization is made up of 346,000 lawyers, you see, and there is bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy.• We need less bureaucracy in the school system - teachers should be allowed to make more decisions.• The consequence may well be the forms of bureaucracy that so occupy the attention of administrative reformers.• In the leaner 1990s that headquarters glamour is increasingly seen as gluttony - an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and overheads.• One more small step away from control by elected officials and toward a government run by the bureaucracy.• Once the process is under way, empire-building adds fuel to the fire, and more fat to the bureaucracy.From Longman Business Dictionarybureaucracybu‧reauc‧ra‧cy /bjʊəˈrɒkrəsi bjʊˈrɑː-/ noun (plural bureaucracies)1[countable] a system of government that uses a large number of departments and officialsa powerful centralized bureaucracy2[uncountable] disapproving all the complicated rules and processes of an official system, especially when they are confusing or responsible for causing a delaythe mountain of bureaucracy which blocks the path of aid workers trying to bring help to a country in desperate needOrigin bureaucracy (1800-1900) French bureaucracie, from bureau ( → BUREAU) + -cracie “-cracy” 