Quango

//ˈkwæŋ.ɡəʊ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An organization that, although financed by a government, acts independently of it. UK, derogatory, often

    "The strongest link to the State, however, occurs with quangos, (quasi-NGOs), and the many umbrella groups that also thrive on State support. Many of the new parties realized after their Sturm und Drang years that they still needed regular contacts with the 'civil' world and that their civilian support base had been seriously eroded."

  2. 2
    a quasi nongovernmental organization; an organization that is financed by the government yet acts independently of the government wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
parastatalquasi ngoquasi-ngo

Example

More examples

"The strongest link to the State, however, occurs with quangos, (quasi-NGOs), and the many umbrella groups that also thrive on State support. Many of the new parties realized after their Sturm und Drang years that they still needed regular contacts with the 'civil' world and that their civilian support base had been seriously eroded."

Etymology

From the initial letters (the first two letters for the first word) of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization. Coined by American president of the Carnegie Foundation Alan Pifer in 1967.

More for "quango"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.