Lake Chad, a lake in Africa at the junction of four countries: Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. 5,000 to 10,000 sq. mi. (13,000 to 26,000 sq. km) (seasonal variation).
Official Name Republic of Chad. a republic in northern central Africa, east of Lake Chad. 501,000 sq. mi. (1,297,590 sq. km). N'Djamena.
a male given name.
Slang: Sometimes Disparaging. Sometimes chad a confident, successful, athletic man who is attractive to women, sometimes one who is perceived as hypermasculine, arrogant, or shallow.
French name: Tchad. a republic in N central Africa: made a territory of French Equatorial Africa in 1910; became independent in 1960; contains much desert and the Tibesti Mountains, with Lake Chad in the west; produces chiefly cotton and livestock; suffered intermittent civil war from 1963 and prolonged drought. Official languages: Arabic; French. Religion: Muslim majority, also Christian and animist. Currency: franc. Capital: Ndjamena. Pop: 11 193 452 (2013 est). Area: 1 284 000 sq km (495 750 sq miles)
a lake in N central Africa: fed chiefly by the Shari River, it has no apparent outlet. Area: at fullest extent 10 000 to 26 000 sq km (4000 to 10 000 sq miles), varying seasonally; it has shrunk considerably in recent years
Chad was under French control until 1960.
First recorded in 1930–35; origin uncertain
First recorded in 2010–15, Chad 2 for def. 2
The small circle of paper that falls on the floor after you use a hole punch is called a chad. Some voting machines work by punching holes in ballots, leaving a chad hanging from the back. The chad that falls off a card or piece of paper is a waste product of hole punching, often in the process of voting or punching a time card. The word chad was first used in the 1930s, but most Americans never heard it until the 2000 presidential election, when some votes in Florida were contested because of partially-punched ballots with chads still attached.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
We've had other controversial elections, from the tangled mess of 1876 to the Kennedy-Nixon nail-biter of 1960 to the "hanging chad" election of 2000, which was settled by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2021
Some voters, however, didn't fully punch out the presidential chad or gave it just a little push.
From Fox News ● Nov. 11, 2018
Hanging chad: A chad is the small piece of waste paper or card created when a hole is punched in a ballot.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2016
Sometimes alternative systems are just as bad: While optical scanners avoid the chad problem, they can be confused when a voter fills in the oval of their preferred candidate and then circles it for emphasis.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2016
Gog's soul, man, chould give a crown chad it but three stitches.
From Gammer Gurton's Needle by Art, Mr. S. Mr. of
Her boyfriend, Chance Allison, called law enforcement, according to FWC spokesperson Chad Weber, who spoke at a news conference Monday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
Despite the withdrawal, US military personnel stationed in Nigeria before the Lake Chad Basin operation have remained in the country, military spokesperson Major General Samaila Uba told the BBC.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
“We should be using what is essentially a mass surveillance technology only for the worst possible crimes,” said Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Case in point: Chad Jones, an economist focused on the risks and opportunities of AI, announced Tuesday that he would take leave from Stanford to continue his research at Anthropic.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
Justin and Chad are nowhere to be seen.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
She has lived through the days of hanging chads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024
While the final results can sometimes be controversial, there’s no risk of hanging chads - voting takes place entirely online.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 12, 2023
While the final results can sometimes be controversial, there’s no risk of hanging chads — voting takes place entirely online.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 12, 2023
Dominion was founded in the wake of a different controversy: the failure of punch-card voting machines — and their infamous hanging chads — in the 2000 election.
From New York Times ● Aug. 24, 2021
He followed her as she tried to bring some order out of chads, and knew not that he spoke aloud.
From Kate Carnegie and Those Ministers by Maclaren, Ian
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.
