bureau
noun
Simple meaning
An administrative unit of government.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
byoorohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbjʊɹoʊ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An administrative unit of government; office.
An organization or office for collecting or providing information or news.
An office (room where clerical or professional duties are performed).
chiefly british
A desk, usually with a cover and compartments that are located above the level of the writing surface rather than underneath, and often used for storing papers.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An administrative unit of government; office.
Used this way, bureau is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This sense is about measurement, so it is used where accuracy is the point.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
- Academic writing
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The agency of the Treasury Department that produces currency.
An agency that is the primary source in the State Department for interpretive analyses of global developments and focal point for policy issues and activities of the Intelligence Community.
The bureau in the Department of Justice that assists local criminal justice systems to reduce or prevent crime and violence and drug abuse.
The agency in the Department of Justice that is the primary source of criminal justice statistics for federal and local policy makers.
The bureau of the Commerce Department responsible for taking the census.
An establishment where you can exchange foreign money.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: administrative unit of government
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.