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functionary

noun

Simple meaning

A person use as an official in a bureaucracy who holds limited authority and primarily serves to carry out a simple function for which….

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fuhngkshuhnuhree

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfʌŋkʃənɛɹi

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

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. A worker who holds or is invested with an office

  3. Such a person who is petty, pedantic, short-sighted, uncaring, or counterproductive; sometimes also with implication of being amoral or corrupt.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: 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.

Used this way, functionary is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Official and authoritative
Usage feel
Formal and precise

Where it naturally appears

  • Business/professional

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.

public functionaryparty functionaryhigh functionaryimportant functionarygovernment functionaryreligious functionaryminor functionarystate functionary

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • functionaladjectiveDerived adjective

    Designed for or capable of a particular function or use.

  • functionallyadverbDerived adverb

    With respect to function.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: person employed as an official in a bureaucracy (usually corporate

official

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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.