Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An organization or agency that is financed by a government but that acts independently of it.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK An organization that, although financed by a government, acts independently of it.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a quasi nongovernmental organization; an organization that is financed by the government yet acts independently of the government

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[qua(si) n(on-)g(overnmental) o(rganization).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the initial letters (the first two letters for the first word) of "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization"

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Examples

Comments

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  • I believe this is short for "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation".

    February 17, 2007

  • Naw, SoG; according to Weirdnet's second definition, it's just a group of people who work together.

    Like a quilting bee. Or a soccer team. A band of pirates. The corps de ballet at the Bolshoi. A highly trained special forces unit of vicious assassins. Your local Applebee's crew.

    January 3, 2009

  • ... or the freaks in my office.

    January 6, 2009

  • 1/16/09 UK Telegraph headline: "Spending by quangos on PR up a quarter despite looming economic downturn"

    January 16, 2009

  • "The authors of the report say politicians from all parties have called for cuts in the numbers and influence of quangos, but they have continued to flourish. Quangos are bodies which are charged by the government, and paid by it, to perform a certain role.

    They vary greatly in the way they are set up and in roles they perform but have two key aspects - they are not under direct control from ministers and the people who work for them are not civil servants. They have been criticised by politicians from all sides at various times because of their cost, their number, or for an alleged lack of accountability."

    - Angela Harrison, Call for quango cull in education, bbc.co.uk, 12 August 2009.

    August 13, 2009

  • what a silly sounding word.

    can we call members of a quango, quangoroos?

    December 13, 2013