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Synonyms

spokesman

American  
[spohks-muhn] / ˈspoʊks mən /

noun

  • spokesmen
    plural
  1. a person who speaks for another or for a group.

  2. a public speaker.


spokesman British  
/ ˈspəʊksˌpɜːsən, ˈspəʊksmən, ˈspəʊksˌwʊmən /

noun

  1. a person authorized to speak on behalf of another person, group of people, or organization

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Gender

See -man.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of spokesman

1510–20; spoke 1 (irregular as noun) + 's 1 + -man

Explanation

A spokesman is a representative, someone who speaks for a group. The spokesman of your French club, for example, might announce the date of your bake sale during your school's morning announcements. You can use the noun spokesman whenever you're talking about an official speaker, a person who communicates information about a company, organization, or other group. It's most common to refer to a man in this position as a spokesman — a more inclusive term for males or females is spokesperson. Spokesman has been around since the 1500's, but spokesperson wasn't first used until the 1970's.

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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:

A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the state charges, pointed to a prior statement in which he said that prosecutors had been tirelessly preparing for trial.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 17, 2026

"We can't ban them. They exist, they inform the public, for some people that's convenient," spokesman Yuri Ignat told AFP.

From Barron's Aug. 16, 2026

“We have always acted in good faith, and insinuations that we have in any way attempted to circumvent our obligations is simply false,” a spokesman for TWG Global, Walter’s conglomerate, said in a statement.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 16, 2026

"We need to come closer diplomatically rather than talking from a distance if we want to make progress in our relationship," says Zabihullah Mujahid, the main Taliban spokesman.

From BBC Aug. 14, 2026

Yoyo, the Big Mouth, had become the spokesman for her sisters, and she stood her ground in that bedroom.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

The chips and power supply OpenAI will be ripping away from Sora will be reapplied, its spokesmen have said, for things like coding and creating real-world physics engines for robots.

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 29, 2026

Taliban spokesmen deny her detention is related to her work as a journalist, according to local media.

From BBC Jan. 23, 2026

"Anthony Joshua was discharged from hospital late this afternoon", spokesmen for Lagos and Ogun state governments said in a joint statement late Wednesday night.

From Barron's Jan. 1, 2026

Hegseth’s press spokesmen have followed his lead, as they tend to do, for better or worse.

From Slate Jul. 24, 2025

Meanwhile, clergymen, college presidents, and other self-appointed spokesmen for communal standards of morality seized upon the Burr-Hamilton encounter to launch a crusade against dueling throughout most of the northern states.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

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