functionary
Americannoun
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of functionary
Explanation
A functionary is someone who fills a specific role in a political party or some other organization. We tend to picture them as people in gray suits who follow the boss's orders and don't think for themselves. The origins of this word go back to the French Revolution, and specifically Napoleon. After conquering most of Europe, Napoleon needed lots of people to help carry out all the functions, or duties, of his huge, centralized state. To build an empire you need soldiers; to run an empire you need office workers. These desk knights, if you will, were called fonctionnaires.
Vocabulary lists containing functionary
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The Left Hand of Darkness
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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.
See Examples For:
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
Because he was an obscure functionary, the lawmaker assumed that he would be an Aaron, Moses’ brother and supporter.
From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2025
One of my professors, Harry Wexler, had been a young functionary under the midcentury mayor-for-life Dick Lee.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2025
Fred Specktor, in his son’s eyes, isn’t a mere functionary but a man who tried to retain the elements of agenting that felt like making art — negotiation, persuasion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 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
A few questioned whether the Wikimedia Foundation was taking threats seriously enough when they were raised by the site’s volunteer administrators and functionaries.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 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 do have something in common: both of us are supposed to be invisible, both of us are functionaries.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
