chieftain
Americannoun
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chieftains
plural
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the chief of a clan or a tribe.
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a leader of a group, band, etc..
the robbers' chieftain.
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Military. Chieftain, Britain's main battle tank since 1969, fitted with a 120 mm gun and two machine guns and weighing 55 tons (50 metric tons).
noun
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the head or leader of a tribe or clan
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the chief of a group of people
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of chieftain
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English cheftayne, variant of chevetaine, from Old French, from Late Latin capitāneus “chief”; see captain
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.
See Examples For:
Datu Atom Malimpnig, a Maguindanaon chieftain, said the newly formed coastline had left the group of fishermen and their families hesitant to return to their now-destroyed homes.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde—Gen. Franco to you and me; Caudillo de España, or chieftain of Spain, to his countrymen—died on Nov. 20, 1975.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
In the latter respects, the series also resembles “Game of Thrones,” where Momoa spent two seasons as chieftain Khal Drogo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2025
Charity Adams, changed back to “Fort Lee,” I can only imagine how the SCV and others would respond to a re-renaming after any Lee other than their holy Confederate chieftain.
From Slate ● Feb. 12, 2025
Right through the press drove Théoden Thengel’s son, and his spear was shivered as he threw down their chieftain.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
After a tumultuous start to 2025, corporate chieftains regained the confidence to pursue deals, resulting in the second-highest mergers volume on record in 2025.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
Zero rates took the pressure off corporate chieftains to restructure, innovate, and take risks, as Japan Inc. did before QE arrived.
From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025
On the other hand, the possibly revolutionary impact from artificial intelligence argues that maybe it is still early days, no matter how abrasively these chieftains behave.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2025
Porter’s national prominence grew when, during congressional hearings, she grilled Trump administration officials and corporate chieftains using her whiteboard to make esoteric policy understandable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2025
Polyneices had been joined by six chieftains, one of them the King of Argos, Adrastus, and another Adrastus’ brother-in-law, Amphiaraus.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
