technocrat
noun
Did you know?
In 1919 W. H. Smyth coined the term technocracy to mean basically "management of society by technical experts". Technocracy grew into a movement during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when politicians and financial institutions were being blamed for the economic disaster, and fans of technocracy claimed that letting technical experts manage the country would be a great improvement. (They also suggested that dollars could be replaced by "energy certificates" representing energy units called ergs.) Today technocrat and technocratic are still popular words for experts with a highly rational and scientific approach to public policy issues. But these experts aren't always the best politicians, and when a terrific technological solution to a problem is opposed by a powerful group or industry, lawmakers find it easier to just ignore it.
Examples of technocrat in a Sentence
Ann Manov,
Harpers Magazine,
30 June 2026
In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party has opportunistically seized on air-conditioning, portraying it as an urgent quality-of-life issue that moralizing environmentalists and overreaching technocrats have ignored.
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Thomas Chatterton Williams,
The Atlantic,
28 June 2026
Over his 18-year tenure at the Fed, Greenspan embodied the omnipotent technocrat — a legacy critics say was fatally undermined by his failure to spot the 2008 housing bubble.
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Brendan Ruberry,
semafor.com,
22 June 2026
Her likely economic team includes veteran technocrats such as former Economy Minister Luis Carranza.
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Antonio María Delgado,
Miami Herald,
16 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for technocrat
Cite this Entry
“Technocrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technocrat. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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