functionary
pronunciation
How to pronounce functionary in British English:
UK [ˈfʌŋkʃənəri]
How to pronounce functionary in American English:
US [ˈfʌŋkʃəneri]
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- Noun:
- a worker who holds or is invested with an office
Word Origin
- functionary (n.)
- "one who has a certain function, one who holds an office," 1791, from or patterned on French fonctionnaire, a word of the Revolution; from fonction (see function (n.)). As an adjective in English from 1822, "functional." Related: Functionarism.
Example
- 1. He raised his hands to the sky then gestured toward a state functionary visiting his farm .
- 2. Poor people the world over are most infuriated by the casual corruption of the elites rather than by the underpaid , " tip " - seeking soldier or functionary .
- 3. Her days now veer from reviewing raw laboratory data with her research colleagues to leading the back-to-back meetings of a government functionary but the two roles are joined by the mantra of her time at the institute : policy should be grounded in valid science .