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Glite Dictionary
United States Government Printing Office

United States Government Printing Office

6.8
A former U.S. government agency that printed and bound official documents for Congress and other federal offices
  • proper noun
translation icon : Oficina de Imprenta del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos
  • The United States Government Printing Office was reorganized into the Government Publishing Office in 2014.

Examples

  • For over a century, the United States Government Printing Office supplied official documents to government agencies.

  • Many public records were historically printed by the United States Government Printing Office.

  • The United States Government Printing Office published many important documents.

  • Did the United States Government Printing Office print the new law?

  • The United States Government Printing Office provided essential printing services for Congress and federal agencies for many years.

  • Historically, the United States Government Printing Office was known for producing a wide range of official publications.

  • In 2014, the United States Government Printing Office transitioned to become the Government Publishing Office.

Synonyms

GPO
vsUnited States Government Printing Office
  • Formal
1 7.3

A government office that prints official documents for Congress and federal agencies

refers to a former agency that no longer performs those services
Government Printing Office
vsUnited States Government Printing Office
  • Formal
1 4.8

A former U.S. agency that printed and bound official government documents

uses the fuller phrase mentioning government when naming federal departments
US Government Printing Office
vsUnited States Government Printing Office
  • Formal
6.5

A former government office that made and put together official United States documents for Congress and federal departments

emphasizes the service role rather than the specific publications produced

Surface Forms

United States Government Printing Office main

Morphology

united + state + government + printing + office

The name is fully compositional: a B1 learner who knows 'United', 'States', 'government', 'printing', and 'office' can infer this is an official U.S. government office that handles printing and binding. It is a literal institutional name following standard modifier+noun patterns (and has close parallels in other languages), so no idiomatic or metaphorical inference is required.

Etymology

United States Government Printing Office was the government's big printing office where large presses printed and bound laws, reports and official books for Congress and other departments. Because it really made those papers, the name came to mean the government's official place for printing 'official documents'.