paperwork

English

Etymology

From paper +‎ work.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪ.pɚˌwɝk/, /ˈpeɪ.pɚ.wɚk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

paperwork (uncountable)

1. Routine work involving written documents.

   do paperwork

2. Written documents.
3. (hyperbolic, also figurative) Excessive paperwork, busy work, red tape.
4. (US, prison slang) Court documents or pre-sentencing investigation reports detailing the prisoner's criminal history (usually in the context of discerning whether an inmate has been charged for sex-related offenses or is likely to be an informant).

   to have bad paperwork ― to be charged with sex-related offenses or to likely be an informant

Synonyms

• administrativia
• administrivia

Translations

work involving written documents

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: писмена работа f (pismena rabota)
• Catalan: paperassa (ca) f, paperada (ca) f
• Chinese:

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

• Esperanto: paperoj (eo) pl
• Finnish: paperityöt, paperisota (fi)
• French: tâches administratives f pl
• German: Schreibarbeit (de) f, Papierkram (de) m
• Indonesian: kertas kerja (id)
• Italian: lavoro di documentazione
• 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)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: kertas kerja
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: papirarbeid n

  Nynorsk: papirarbeid n

• Occitan: paperalha f
• Polish: papierkowa robota f
• Portuguese: papelada (pt) f
• Russian: канцеля́рская рабо́та f (kanceljárskaja rabóta), делопроизво́дство (ru) n (deloproizvódstvo)
• Spanish: papeleo (es) m
• Swedish: pappersarbete (sv) n, pappersjobb n
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

written documents

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 文件 (zh) (wénjiàn), 文書／文书 (zh) (wénshū), 公文 (zh) (gōngwén)

• Indonesian: kertas kerja (id)
• Italian: documentazione (it), fascicolo (it)
• Malay: kertas kerja
• Portuguese: papelada (pt)

excessive paperwork

• German: Papierkram (de) m
• Persian: کاغذبازی (fa) (kâğaz-bâzi)
• Portuguese: papelada (pt)

References

• “paperwork”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “paperwork” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.

Anagrams

• workpaper