administrative

UK/ədˈmɪn.ɪ.stɹə.tɪv/US/ədˈmɪn.əˌstɹeɪ.tɪv/

adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,586 of 15,258mostly written

Administrative means to do with the running of an organisation. Paperwork, records, arrangements, the machinery behind the work.

It attaches to staff, costs, duties and errors, and an administrative error is the standard formula for a mistake nobody wants to name more precisely. The word can be faintly dismissive, since administrative tasks are what people mean when they say they never get any real work done. The noun is administration, which also means a government in American English, and the person is an administrator.

Definitions of administrative

1adjectiveadministrativeRelating to the organisation and running of an institution.C1
“Most of the delay was administrative.”

Where it comes from

From administrate + ive.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 12 of A Man Called Ove.

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administrative in the wild

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China.
Hong Kong
Macau or Macao is a special administrative region of China.
Macau
Macau is a special administrative region of China, which maintains separate governing and economic systems from those of mainland China under the principle of "one country, two systems".
Macau
Such a unit usually has an administrative authority with the power to take administrative or policy decisions for its area.
Administrative division
Article 31 reads: "The state may establish special administrative regions when necessary.
Special administrative regions of China

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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