Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A man who investigates complaints and mediates fair settlements, especially between aggrieved parties such as consumers or students and an institution or organization.
- n. A government official, especially in Scandinavian countries, who investigates citizens' complaints against the government or its functionaries.
Wiktionary
- n. An appointed official whose duty is to investigate complaints, generally on behalf of individuals such as consumers or taxpayers, against institutions such as companies and government departments.
- n. A designated internal mediator in an organization whose duty is to assist members with conflict resolution and other problems and to serve as independent consultant to recommend changes to policies or procedures to improve organization effectiveness, efficiency, and humaneness.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a government appointee who investigates complaints by private persons against the government
Etymologies
- Swedish, from Old Norse umbodhsmadhr, deputy, plenipotentiary : umbodh, commission (um, about; see ambhi in Indo-European roots + bodh, command; see bheudh- in Indo-European roots) + madhr, man; see man-1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“And The One Show should be required viewing, especially if you like woodland creatures and the word "ombudsman".”
“The word 'ombudsman' is the same in English, Dutch and Swedish”
“Now Janusz Kochanowski, a senior Polish ombudsman, is calling for criminal charges to be laid.”
“An open government ombudsman is an inadequate substitute for the common sense reforms that the City of Seattle in general and Richard Conlin's Open Government Committee in particular have been putting off for about 17 months.”
“An ombudsman is someone who writes as a kind of independent watch dog on what the newspaper is doing, then gives their opinion of whether the paper was right or wrong.”
“Ontario's new ombudsman is investigating complaints from parents who say they must give up custody of their severely disabled children to get them the care they need.”
“The function of the ombudsman is not the marketing of financial services but rather to ensure that those served by the financial institution are treated fairly and properly.”
“By definition, an ombudsman is an unbiased individual who helps to manage differences and resolve disputes.”
“Two days after she called the ombudsman's office, she got the pills.”
“Half of the total number of disputes referred to the ombudsman involved four of Britain's largest financial services groups: Lloyds (with 44,601 new complaints in the last financial year); Barclays (17,471 new complaints); the Royal Bank of Scotland (15,113), and HSBC (12,269).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ombudsman’.
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Loanwords
Since English is littered with loanwords, everything could conceivably end up here. But there is a distinct feeling associated with these.. maybe they're young additions to the English language; I ...
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tbtabby Learned this word watching World's Dumbest Criminals. Jan 31, 2012