functionary
Example Sentences
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Entertaining down to the last minute, the Bastille Opera finally opened its season with a sad-faced functionary who stepped in front of the curtain to tell us that the “Simone Boccanegra” baritone was indisposed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
Because he was an obscure functionary, the lawmaker assumed that he would be an Aaron, Moses’ brother and supporter.
From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2025
One of my professors, Harry Wexler, had been a young functionary under the midcentury mayor-for-life Dick Lee.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2025
The party, not the government, dictates policy and the foreign minister is essentially a functionary.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
Finally, we were escorted down the hall by a nervous little functionary, who kept checking his watch and motioning for us to hurry along.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and other Kremlin functionaries live in highly-secure estates near the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway west of Moscow, a suburban community dubbed “Moscow Beverly Hills.”
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
He, not his faithful functionaries, needs to take the blame.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025
A few questioned whether the Wikimedia Foundation was taking threats seriously enough when they were raised by the site’s volunteer administrators and functionaries.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2025
After the consumer safety and environmental movements in the 1960s, a backlash emerged from businesses, where critics argued that government functionaries who were not accountable to voters were issuing regulations whose costs outweighed their benefits.
From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2024
A castrated man; especially, one of those who were employed as harem attendants or functionaries in certain Oriental courts.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Vocabulary lists containing functionary
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Left Hand of Darkness
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Around the World in Eighty Days
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