A person with expert technical or economic training who holds real power in government or a large organisation — a central banker running monetary policy, an engineer heading a ministry, a senior civil servant who shapes policy without ever standing for election. The key is that a technocrat's authority comes from knowing the subject, not from winning votes. That is exactly why the word carries an edge. Used approvingly, it means someone serious and competent who deals in numbers instead of slogans. Used critically — and this is at least as common — it suggests someone efficient but cold, who treats a country as a system to be optimised and misses what people actually care about. "A government of technocrats" is often said with relief and with unease in the same breath. The adjective is "technocratic": "a technocratic approach", "technocratic language". This is a news-and-politics word. You are far more likely to read it than to say it.

技術官僚。台灣媒體常用來指財經、工程背景出身、不靠選舉而握有政策實權的高階官員；語氣中性偏冷，有時帶「只懂數字、不懂民意」的批評。