paperwork

English

Etymology

paper +‎ work.

Noun

paperwork (uncountable)

1. A clerical task or set of tasks involving routine written work; busy work; red tape.
2. (informal) Excessive, intricate or meticulous work with documents in an unnecessary and incidental way to more important tasks.

Synonyms

• administrativia
• administrivia
• busy work
• red tape

Translations

clerical tasks involving routine written work

• Catalan: paperassa (ca) f, paperada (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 文書工作 (cmn), 文书工作 (cmn) (wénshū gōngzuò), 公文處理 (cmn), 公文处理 (cmn) (gōngwén chǔlǐ)

• Esperanto: paperoj (eo) pl
• Finnish: paperityöt (fi), paperisota (fi)
• French: tâches administratives (fr) f pl

• German: Schreibarbeit (de) f
• Japanese: 事務処理 (ja) (じむしょり, jimushori), 文書業務 (ja) (もんじょぎょうむ, monjo gyōmu)
• Portuguese: papelada (pt) f
• Russian: канцелярская работа (ru) (kanceljárskaja rabóta) f, делопроизводство (ru) (deloproizvódstvo) n
• Spanish: papeleo (es) m

References

• “paperwork” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online.
• paperwork in thefreedictionary.com, Copyright © 2010 Farlex, Inc.