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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bureau.

An administrative unit of government; office.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbjʊ.ɹəʊ/UK/ˈbjʊ.ɹə/UK/ˈbjʊ.ɹoʊ/US/ˈbjʊ.ɹə/US
  1. An administrative unit of government; office.

  2. An organization or office for collecting or providing information or news.

    a news bureau; a travel bureau; a service bureau; an employment bureau; the Citizens Advice Bureau
  3. An office (room where clerical or professional duties are performed).

  4. A desk, usually with a cover and compartments that are located above the level of the writing surface rather than underneath, and often used for storing papers.

    UK
  5. A chest of drawers for clothes.

    Northeastern · US
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ Proto-Hellenic *pāwər Ancient Greek πῦρ (pûr) Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Hellenic *-rós Ancient Greek -ρός (-rós) Ancient Greek πῠρρός (pŭrrhós)bor. Latin burrus Latin burra Old French *bure Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin -ellus Old French -el Old French burel French bureauubor. English bureau Unadapted borrowing from French bureau, earlier "coarse cloth (as desk cover), baize", from Old French burel (“woolen cloth”), diminutive of *bure (compare Middle French bure (“coarse woolen cloth”), French bourre (“hair, fluff”)), from Late Latin burra (“wool, fluff, shaggy cloth, coarse fabric”); akin to Ancient Greek βερβέριον (berbérion, “shabby garment”). Doublet of burel and borrel, taken from Old French.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.