Meaning & use
administrative
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivebefore a noun
Connected with running an organization, including paperwork, scheduling and keeping records.
Grammar: Almost always before a noun: administrative staff, administrative work.
Patterns
- administrative work
- administrative staff
She took an administrative job at the university.
Administrative costs rose by ten percent.
The clinic hired extra administrative staff to handle appointments.
Common combinations
- administrative assistant
- The administrative assistant booked the room.
- administrative costs
- The charity keeps administrative costs low.
- administrative error
- An administrative error delayed the payment.
- administrative duties
- His administrative duties take up half the day.
- administrative law
- She studies administrative law.
Synonyms and how they differ
- managerial
- Managerial relates to directing people and decisions, not just routine paperwork.
- clerical
- Clerical refers to routine office tasks such as filing and typing.
- bureaucratic
- Bureaucratic often has a negative sense of excessive rules.
- executive
- Executive relates to making decisions and carrying out plans at a high level.
Word family
- administer verb
- to manage or give out
- administration noun
- the running of an organization, or a government
- administrator noun
- a person who manages an organization
- administratively adverb
- in terms of administration
Commonly confused: administrative or administrate?
administrative vs administrate
Administrate is a less common variant of administer; administrative is the adjective.
Practice
Booking rooms, filing forms and answering calls are all ____ tasks.
Choose one answer.
Administrative describes office organization work. The other adjectives describe art, sport or farming.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “administrative”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.