chairperson

American  

[chair-pur-suhn] / ˈtʃɛərˌpɜr sən /

noun

chairpersons plural

1. a person who presides over a meeting, committee, board, etc.

2. the administrative head of a department in a high school, college, or university.

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chairperson British  

/ ˈtʃɛəˌpɜːsən /

noun

1. another word for chairman

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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

• chairpersonship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• chairpersons
  plural

Etymology

Origin of chairperson

First recorded in 1970–75; chair(man) + -person

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chairperson chairpersons

The council's transport chairperson, Moraig Lyall, said the report showed there were no technical barriers to building tunnels which would be "cheaper in the long run" than ferries.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 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

It will be the first visit to China by a sitting KMT chairperson since November 2016 when then KMT leader Hung Hsiu-chu met with Xi in Beijing.

From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 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

In 2024, the chairpersons of 17 parent councils in Aberdeenshire wrote to the Scottish government asking for urgent action to tackle the teacher shortages in the north east.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

Warner, the more eager of the two chairpersons of jurisdiction who described this as a “top priority,” said he would be open to another Senate hearing if that’s what it takes.

From Slate ● Mar. 21, 2024

The session also swore in 14 congress vice chairpersons.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2023

“We have Betsy brigades in every county, and we will have chairpersons in those counties responsible for explaining the intricacies of signature gathering,” Johnson said.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 4, 2022

From this point on, representatives of the Community found themselves increasingly asked to function as convenors or chairpersons of a wide range of bodies: committees, task forces, working groups and advisory boards.

From Century of Light by Baha'i International Community