chairperson
Americannoun
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a person who presides over a meeting, committee, board, etc.
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the administrative head of a department in a high school, college, or university.
noun
Gender
Chairperson has, since the 1960s, come to be used widely as an alternative to either chairman or chairwoman. This change was motivated largely by a desire to avoid chairman, which was felt to be inappropriate and even sexually discriminatory when applied to a woman. Chairperson is standard in all varieties of speech and writing. Despite such widespread acceptance, some organizations and publications do not use chairperson at all, usually on the grounds that it is awkward and that chairman is a well-established generic term. Many style guides advocate use of the term chair to designate the presiding officer, thus avoiding charges of both sexism and awkwardness: Jim will be chair of the entertainment committee this year, and Jane will be chair next year. See also -man, -person, -woman.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of chairperson
First recorded in 1970–75; chair(man) + -person
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Makashule Gana, a member of another coalition partner Rise Mzansi, has been elected as chairperson of the impeachment committee.
From BBC • Jun. 5, 2026
Ortega’s daughter, Marta Ortega Perez, is the retailer’s chairperson.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 3, 2026
“We have never felt this threatened before and it is by our ally,” said Pipaluk Lynge, chairperson of the Greenlandic Parliament’s foreign and security policy committee.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026
The scope of the government's review into maternity care in Sussex – announced by the health secretary - is yet to be agreed, as is the chairperson.
From BBC • Feb. 12, 2026
“Well, I don’t know who did it,” the house chairperson said, “but whoever it was, they had spaghetti for dinner.”
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
