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
- From Swedish ombudsman, from Old Norse umboðsmaðr. (Wiktionary)
- Swedish, from Old Norse umbodhsmadhr, deputy, plenipotentiary : umbodh, commission (um, about; + bodh, command; + madhr, man. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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’.
-
BUDG - general terms
Budgetese - not a sexy topic but a very comprehensive list of words and collocations used in EU circles. Budgeting experts please comment and expand.
heading, across-the-board ..., emergency reserve, frontload, mopping-up, performance reserve, positive margin, negative margin, public finances, structural operat..., administrative ex..., management of EU ... and 657 more...
-
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 ...
iceberg, fjord, firth, abbey, abyss, anorak, apartheid, assassin, avalanche, avocado, balaclava, banana and 104 more...
-
POL - people in power
daredevil, tzar, king, boss, master, commander, chief, kingpin, top banana, bigwig, big cheese, big wheel and 452 more...
-
AFCO - fundamental rights
as enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
academic freedom, access, asylum, bargaining, citizen, cloning, cohesion, collective agreement, collective bargai..., confidentiality, conflict of interest, constraint and 357 more...
-
EU - Eurovoc - politics
absolute majority, absolute monarchy, abstentionism, access to informa..., acquisition of arms, action brought be..., action for annulment, action to establi..., ad hoc committee, adjournment, adjournment motion, administration and 965 more...
-
EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
-
EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
-
EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
+
2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
-
others
impish, inebriate, contentious, thwart, money laundering, cobber, ombudsman, exchequer, sordid, bog, braggadocio, spooky and 10 more...
-
INTERP - people and posts
annunciator, assistant, authorizing officer, back-bencher, board member, candidate, chair, chairman, chairperson, clerk of committees, commissioner, committee assistant and 70 more...
-
Garbiage
word trash
parapluie, brobdingnagian, plié, segue, laconic, pastoral, phthisis, belly, synecdoche, apotheosis, sepulchral, mollification and 40 more...
-
wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
-
Man
Everything that contains a man in it
taxman, salesman, common man, spaceman, neolithic man, straw man, seaman, fireman, spiderman, overman, old man, con man and 373 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
slackagogo's Words
agelast, aggiornamento, zaftig, wowserism, vox barbara, verbigeration, tchotchke, tautology, sycophant, spoonerism, solipsism, sobriquet and 288 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ombudsman.
tbtabby Learned this word watching World's Dumbest Criminals. Jan 31, 2012