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Definitions

functionary

[fuhngk-shuh-ner-ee] / ˈfʌŋk ʃəˌnɛr i /


NOUN
bureaucrat
Synonyms




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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President Masoud Pezeshkian is a functionary, selected in haste in 2024 to replace Ebrahim Raisi, whose helicopter crashed into a mountain.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 12, 2026

The piece suggests this physical restraint conveyed an image of a cautious functionary rather than a dynamic leader capable of governing California during turbulent times.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 23, 2026

One of my professors, Harry Wexler, had been a young functionary under the midcentury mayor-for-life Dick Lee.

From Slate Sep. 21, 2025

Adolf Ziegler, the Nazi functionary charged with overseeing the exhibition, perceived no ambiguity.

From Salon Jun. 8, 2025

There was even a former Conservative functionary who had taken refuge in the revolt to escape a judgment for misappropriation of funds.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and other Kremlin functionaries live in highly-secure estates near the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway west of Moscow, a suburban community dubbed “Moscow Beverly Hills.”

From Salon Mar. 24, 2026

The novel echoes thinkers like Hannah Arendt in pointing out how true-believing functionaries, the butt of ridicule in “normal” times, can help subsume all reason and decency to usurp a compliant and too-comfortable ruling class.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 12, 2025

The most important people in the country all along were the rule-followers—corporate attorneys, regional judges, visa-processing functionaries, tax assessors, customs officials, food and drug regulators.

From Slate Sep. 19, 2025

That so many corrupt functionaries and cartel capos ultimately face responsibility in the United States — and not in Mexico — underscores a fundamental weakness of the Mexican justice system, observers say.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 7, 2025

We are at El Almirante, where— we have decided—the waiters must be retired functionaries from the old Trujillo days.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez




Vocabulary lists containing functionary


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