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.
His top GOP challenger, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, was backed by 10%, the poll showed.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
Since then, Nigeria has allowed hundreds of American troops to be posted to the country to train Nigerian forces and coordinate targeting of militant groups that have rampaged through the Lake Chad Basin for years.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026
The Lake Chad basin is a huge region of waterways and swampland shared by Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
From BBC • May 11, 2026
The militia member said the number of dead was unknown, as the operation on the vast expanse of water and marshland between Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad was still ongoing.
From Barron's • May 10, 2026
She grabs Chad and Justin from the corner by the small coatroom and pulls them with her.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
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.
