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 f, paperada f
• Chinese:

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

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

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

Excessive, intricate or meticulous work with documents in an unnecessary and incidental way to more important tasks

• Persian: کاغذبازی (fa) (kâğaz-bâzi)

References

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