administration
Pluraladministrations
- 1The executive branch of a government, especially a president or prime minister and the officials serving under them during their term.
The current administration has made climate policy a priority.
Administration officials declined to comment on the leaked memo.
UsageUsually the administration, with the leader's name in front: the Obama administration; also before a noun: administration officials.
Note
The phrase labels a stretch of government by who led it, so it can mark a period as readily as a set of people. Administration officials are those who speak for that particular government, as distinct from the permanent machinery of state.
- 2The work of managing and organizing the affairs of a government, business, institution, or other undertaking.
Hospitals now spend a growing share of their budgets on administration rather than patient care.
Day-to-day administration of the estate fell to the eldest daughter.
UsageUsually no article: spend money on administration, good administration; the administration of something names what is run.
Similarmanagement
- 3A body of people who manage an institution; the administrators of an organization considered collectively.
The hospital administration approved funding for two new operating rooms.
Faculty and administration clashed over the proposed budget cuts.
UsageUsually with the institution in front: the school administration, the hospital administration.
Similarleadership
Note
The same idea scaled down from a nation to a single institution: a university, a hospital, a school. It is often set against the other people in the institution, such as faculty or students, which is why it turns up so often in reports of campus disputes.
- 4The act of dispensing or giving something to another person, such as medication, an oath, or a sacrament.
Proper administration of a vaccine requires trained medical staff.
The judge oversaw the administration of the oath to each new citizen.
UsageThe administration of a drug or an oath (to someone); in medicine a route word often comes first: oral administration.
Similardelivery, dispensing
Note
The direction here is outward, toward a recipient. Something is administered to someone, and the things given are formal ones: a medicine, an oath, justice, a sacrament. Unlike the managing sense, nothing is being run. Something is being handed over or applied.
Less common meaning
- 5A legal procedure, in the UK, Australia and elsewhere, in which an appointed outside specialist controls an insolvent company to rescue it or get creditors the best return.
The retailer entered administration in January, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
The airline came out of administration after a rival bought most of its routes.
UsageUsually no article, with verbs of entering and leaving: go into administration, be put into administration, come out of administration.
Note
An insolvency term, British and Australian, that is easy to misread. A company in administration has not simply changed its managers; it cannot pay its debts, or soon will not be able to, and is under the control of an outside administrator. Railtrack, then the private owner of Britain's track, was put into administration in the crisis that followed the Hatfield derailment.
Practice
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Origin
The word comes from Middle English administracioun, borrowed from Old French administration, which came from Latin administratio, from administrare (to manage or serve); it is related to administer and can be seen as administrate plus the suffix -ion.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Administration comes through Middle English administracioun and Old French administration from Latin administratio and administrare. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin administrare means to manage or serve. en.wiktionary.org
- Administration is related to administer. en.wiktionary.org
- Administration can be analysed as administrate plus -ion. en.wiktionary.org