Tiếng Việt · Word Attested

quan lại

[kwaːn˧˧ laːj˧˨ʔ]

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

(noun) government bureaucrat; official; mandarin

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

nhân viên chính phủ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Noun

Where it’s used: Used Toàn quốc & hải ngoại · Vietnam-wide & diaspora

Vốn ta không quản được họ nhưng bọn quan lại ấy cũng rất vô dụng.I used not to care about them, but those bureaucrats are also completely useless.

Wiktionary example (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources & notes

Imported from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); community review pending. source ↗

Common questions

What does “quan lại” mean?

(noun) government bureaucrat; official; mandarin

Is “quan lại” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.