Red-tapism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A strict adherence to official formalities. derogatory

    "Red-tapism is the biggest defect of bureaucracy. In a bureaucratic set-up, the files and papers move at a snail's pace and it takes inordinately long time to reach any decision on any matter."

Synonyms

All synonyms
tapism

Example

More examples

"Red-tapism is the biggest defect of bureaucracy. In a bureaucratic set-up, the files and papers move at a snail's pace and it takes inordinately long time to reach any decision on any matter."

Etymology

From red tape + -ism or red + tapism.

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