officialese

9.7

Formal, hard to understand language that government officials use

noun
/əˌfɪʃəˈliːz/

Literature

: lenguaje burocrático

After reading the bureaucracy's email, I was confused by all the officialese they used.

Examples

Even Abel's nightmarish recollection of the prison setting is interrupted by another register switch to officialese, this time a psychological assessment questionnaire:

Academic text (2005)
Sympathizers, in officialese.

Fiction book (1995)
As a result, the state, whose mandate is to know everything about all respondents, paradoxically ends up knowing nothing about their real personhood by bringing to bear the weight of officialese to depersonalize them and thus to affirm its own power.

Academic text (2005)
The report was filled with officialese that made it hard to understand the main points.
In her speech, she avoided officialese and spoke plainly to connect with the audience.

Synonyms

jargon

vsofficialese

43 7.2

Words used by a group or job that others cannot understand

is broader, describing an entire formal style used by officials rather than only words

bureaucratese

vsofficialese

Literature

1 9.9

Formal, complicated language used in official or government papers

is used broadly by officials, not only in written documents

Antonyms

plainness

1 3.7

Being clear and easy to understand

How Formal

bureaucratese

Literature

1 9.9

officialese

Literature

9.7

jargon

43 7.2

Surface Forms

officialese singular

officialeses plural

Morphology

officialese = official (transparent) = official + ese

Formed from 'official' + productive suffix '-ese' meaning a style or language, so the sense 'jargon/style of officials' is directly predictable.

Etymology

Officialese joins official and the ending -ese, as in Chinese, where -ese names a 'language'. So officialese is a way to call the special, formal and often 'hard to understand' language used by officials and government offices.