Meanings
- colloquialrareuncountableThe jargon used in administration.
It seems strange to have to ask, but suddenly we wonder… […] -why administrators, in their peculiar administrationese, ask for "student input"--and then tell lus^([sic]) our options are foreclosed?
1977 December 16, “Commentary”, in The Goucher Weekly, volume 63, number 12, page 23 more examples
Chairs and faculty members quickly learn that deans speak in strange tongues (ICLMs [Induced Course Load Matrices], FTEs [Full-Time Equivalents], and outcomes are administrationese from three different decades).
1994 April 1, Dealing With the Dean, “Dealing With the Dean”, in ADFL Bulletin, volume 25, number 3, →DOI, page 12b of 11–16Englishes used in ESL countries tend to be characterized by […] 3. a restricted input, historically often dominated by administrationese, literary English from Shakespeare to Dickens, and biblical language; its application to other text types can result in register misuse and unusual mixes.
1997 September 1, Manfred Görlach, “Varieties of English world-wide: where we stand”, in Links & Letters, number 5, 1998, page 28 of 13-36A stickler for the proper use of the English language, in one of his editorials, FJS commented: “Besides grammatical errors, the language is polluted (even by the ‘educated’) with jargon, clichés, and what I will call administrationese. I cannot count the times I have recently heard ‘going forward.’
2008 August 1, William F. Young, Jr., “THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY 2008 LAUREATE AWARDS: Citation for the 2008 Distinguished Physician Award of The Endocrine Society to Dr. F. John Service”, in Molecular Endocrinology, volume 22, number 8, →DOI, pages 1977–1989Synonyms: administrationspeak, adminspeak, adminese
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe jargon used in administration.
Origin
Translations
Finnish hallintokieli
- hallintokieliTranslations
German Verwaltungssprech
- VerwaltungssprechTranslations
Ukrainian канцеляризм
- канцеляризм (kanceljaryzm)Translations
Cite this entry
administrationese. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/administrationese
“administrationese.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/administrationese. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “administrationese,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/administrationese.
Source: administrationese on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.