ombudsman
noun
Simple meaning
A government appointee who investigates complaints by private persons against the government.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ahmbuhdzmuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɑmbədzmən
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
A government appointee who investigates complaints by private persons against the government
An appointed official whose duty is to investigate complaints, generally on behalf of individuals such as consumers or taxpayers, against institutions such as companies and government departments.
A designated internal mediator in an organization whose duty is to assist members with conflict resolution and other problems and to serve as an independent consultant to recommend changes to policies or procedures to improve organization effectiveness, efficiency, and humaneness.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A government appointee who investigates complaints by private persons against the government
Used this way, ombudsman is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
- 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
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ombudsman
- “If you have a complaint against the government, you can contact the ombudsman's office.”noun
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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.