apparatchik

English - English

Definition of apparatchik in English English dictionary

A blindly loyal bureaucrat

Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch. ¶ ¶ He delegated responsibility for purging their ranks to an inexperienced and incompetent assistant who, if that’s possible, was even more of a plodding apparatchik.

A member of a Communist apparat

In these dire conditions the ambitious Serbian Communist Party apparatchik Slobodan Milošević played the national card in Kosovo.

{i} official, bureaucrat of a political party; member of the administrative organization of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union

disapproval An apparatchik is someone who works for a government or a political party and who always obeys orders. an official who works for a government or other organization and who obeys orders without thinking (apparat )

Related Terms

apparatchiks

plural of apparatchik

party apparatchik

bureaucrat of a political party

Hyphenation

ap·pa·ra·tchik

Turkish pronunciation

äpıräçîk

Pronunciation

/ˌapərˈaʧək/ /ˌæpɜrˈæʧɪk/

Etymology

() From Russian аппаратчик (apparátčik, “operator, apparatchik”), from аппарат (apparát, “apparat, apparatus, apparatus of state”), which is cognate to English apparatus + suffix -чик.