bureau

American  

[byoor-oh] / ˈbjʊər oʊ /

noun

• bureaus,
  plural
• bureaux
  plural

1. a chest of drawers, often with a mirror at the top.

2. a division of a government department or an independent administrative unit.

3. an office for collecting or distributing news or information, coordinating work, or performing specified services; agency.

   a travel bureau; a news bureau.

4. Chiefly British. a desk or writing table with drawers for papers.

---

bureau British  

/ ˈbjʊərəʊ /

noun

1. a writing desk with pigeonholes, drawers, etc, against which the writing surface can be closed when not in use

2. a chest of drawers

3. an office or agency, esp one providing services for the public

4. 1. a government department

   2. a branch of a government department

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subbureau
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• bureaus
  plural
• bureaux
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of bureau

1710–20; < French: desk, office, originally a kind of cloth (used to cover desks, etc.), Anglo-French, Old French burel, equivalent to bur- (probably < *būra, variant of Late Latin burra wool, fluff ; cf. bourrée) + -el noun suffix

---

Explanation

When you put your socks away, you'll most likely put them in a bureau, or a chest of drawers used for storing clothes. Hopefully you've washed them. A dresser or a chest of drawers can also be called a bureau, a piece of furniture with drawers for storing things. Another meaning of bureau is "an office or government agency." These two definitions seem unrelated, but the original meaning of the French word bureau, "cloth covering for a desk" helps explain. Bureau gradually evolved to mean first just "desk" (and eventually "dresser"), and around 1720 it also started being used to mean a room full of desks, or an office.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bureau bureaus bureaux

Poverty rates in Sudan have soared to 80 percent, according to data from the central bureau of statistics, while inflation registered an astounding 99 percent last year.

From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026

The Pacific can be likened to someone "burning with fever", says Ana Liza Solis, head of climatology at the Philippines' national weather bureau.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026

Audi sells thousands of luxury cars in the U.S. without building a single one here, but that is about to change, the WSJ’s Detroit bureau chief Patrick George reports.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

The centre of the quake hit Baqên County in the Nagqu region as on Thursday night, Xinhua reported, citing the local emergency management bureau.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

I mumbled something and got up and went to the bureau to get an Alka-Seltzer.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Together, they worked to repair his credit profile — disputing incorrect records and using a tool that reported his on-time payments for streaming services and his cell-phone bill to credit bureaus.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2026

The Spanish Civil Guard has set up bureaus in Madrid, Toledo, Seville and Córdoba to investigate reports of missing persons.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

Such a move would mean the three bureaus fighting over business that currently flows to all of them.

From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2026

The agencies use different data systems, and even different Google spreadsheets, to produce their reports and often have different bureaus within them managing different housing programs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

We still had our beds and chairs and bureaus and dining-room furniture, so we could get along, but even so, the house was bare and echoey.

From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz

Guests were seen hugging, making calls, texting friends and loved ones, and their news bureaux.

From Barron's ● Apr. 26, 2026

Last year Russian state media claimed that RT had seven bureaux in Africa, although this cannot be independently verified.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2025

A Western intelligence source said techniques were used in Sudan that are common to organised crime: Companies were headed by trustee shareholders, rents collected in cash, and transfers made through exchange bureaux.

From Reuters ● Sep. 23, 2021

And for the first time in at least three years, British holidaymakers have found that a pound buys less than a euro at some bureaux de change.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2016

All the chiefs of bureaux had abandoned their posts; so, too, had the second head-clerks, save one, who immediately had himself put on the sick-list.

From History of the Commune of 1871 by P. Lissagary

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• agency
• authority
• board
• commission
• committee
• department
• division
• office

---