"iron triangle" meaning in English

See iron triangle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

Head templates: {{en-proper noun}} iron triangle
  1. (historical) A key communist Chinese and North Korean concentration area and communications junction during the Korean War, located in the central sector. Tags: historical
    Sense id: en-iron_triangle-en-name-HJ9~GSR4
  2. (historical) A stronghold of the Viet Minh during the Vietnam War, located north of Saigon. Tags: historical
    Sense id: en-iron_triangle-en-name-bv3mtAuQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 16 53 19 12 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 18 53 20 10 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 13 56 18 12
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: Iron Triangle

Noun

Forms: iron triangles [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} iron triangle (plural iron triangles)
  1. (US politics, political science) The policy-making relationship among the congressional committees, the bureaucracy (executive, sometimes called “government agencies”), and interest groups or lobbyists. Tags: US Categories (topical): Political science, US politics
    Sense id: en-iron_triangle-en-noun-kQrNvbqg Topics: government, political-science, politics, social-sciences
  2. (by extension) Any self-reinforcing power structure, whether intentional or accidental, formal or informal. Tags: broadly Categories (topical): Corruption
    Sense id: en-iron_triangle-en-noun-a0Znid0f Disambiguation of Corruption: 29 8 22 41
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: regulatory capture

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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          "ref": "1981, Gordon Adams, The Iron Triangle: The Politics of Defense Contracting, New York: The Council on Economic Priorities, →ISBN, pages 24–25:",
          "text": "Over the years the defense industry has become a de facto participant in the policy-making process. As in other areas dominated by powerful corporate interests, a policy sub-government or “iron triangle” has emerged. […] The creation of an “iron triangle” takes time and active efforts of its participants. All three sides work to maintain it as economic circumstances change.",
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          "ref": "1996 December 7, Velisarios Kattoulas, International Herald Tribune, “Corruption Scandals Rack Tokyo's ‘Iron Triangle’”, in International Herald Tribune, →ISSN:",
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          "ref": "2012 July 19, Claire Provost, “US food aid: the special interests blocking reform”, in The Guardian:",
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        "(by extension) Any self-reinforcing power structure, whether intentional or accidental, formal or informal."
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Download raw JSONL data for iron triangle meaning in English (5.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.