bureaucracy
byoo-ROK-ruh-seenounMeaning a system run by many officials and complicated rules
Memory hook BUREAU-CRACY: rule by desks and forms. To get a library card, Pip fills out Form A, gets a stamp at Desk B, waits in Line C and is sent back to Form A. That maze of offices is bureaucracy.
Getting a permit meant months of bureaucracy and forms.
In context The new mayor promised to cut through the bureaucracy; instead of six offices and ten forms, a building permit would need one visit and one page.
Similar red tape, officialdom, administration, paperwork
From French bureaucratie: bureau (desk, office) + -cratie (rule).