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• chad
  chad

  noun

  a small paper disk or square formed when a hole is punched in a punch card or paper tape.
• Chad
  Chad

  noun

  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).

SEE ALSO:

Slang dictionary results for Chad.

chad

¹ American  

[chad] / tʃæd /

noun

Computers.

• chads
  plural

1. a small paper disk or square formed when a hole is punched in a punch card or paper tape.

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Chad ² American  

[chad] / tʃæd /

noun

1. 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).

2. 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.

3. Chadic.

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Chad ³ American  

[chad] / tʃæd /

noun

1. a male given name.

2. 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.

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Chad ¹ British  

/ tʃæd /

noun

1. 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)

2. 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

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chad ² British  

/ tʃæd /

noun

1. the small pieces of cardboard or paper removed during the punching of holes in computer printer paper, paper tape, etc

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Chad Cultural  

1. Landlocked desert republic in north-central Africa, bordered by Sudan to the east; the Central African Republic to the south; Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria to the west; and Libya to the north. N'Djamena is its capital and largest city.

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Chad was under French control until 1960.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• chads
  plural

Etymology

Origin of chad¹

First recorded in 1930–35; origin uncertain

Origin of Chad³

First recorded in 2010–15, Chad ² for def. 2

Explanation

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chad Chad chads

One of the biggest influencers is Braden Peters, AKA Clavicular, a sharp-jawed 20-year-old known in looksmaxxing terms as "giga chad"; 10/10.

From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2026

“For example,” he continued, “manual counters are forced to determine whether a pinprick point on a chad demonstrated an intent to register a vote.”

From New York Times ● May 5, 2023

So, for example, counters in Miami-Dade County might deem a particular hanging chad a vote for president while counters in Palm Beach County might not.

From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2020

In 2002, after the so-called hanging chad scandal of the 2000 Presidential election, federal funds helped spread the use of electronic voting machines that are still in use today.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 5, 2018

There is a legend that the word was originally acronymic, standing for "Card Hole Aggregate Debris", but this has all the earmarks of a bogus folk etymology. :chad box: /n./

From The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0, 24 Jul 1996 by Eric S. Raymond

In addition to getting engaged to her fiancé and fellow comedian Chad Daniels, she’s now celebrating the release of her third special — her first on Netflix — aptly titled “Happy Hour.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said Flock’s moves were generally positive but don’t go far enough.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Yet countries such as Chad and Sudan recorded July temperatures more than 2C above the 1981-2010 average.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

In his book “The Inheritance Playbook,” Chad Holmes gives the example of parents who are in their 80s and have $894,000 in a tax-deferred IRA.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026

Liverpool was soon the happy recipient of Lawrence’s blueprints and two English-born, Rad Lab—trained physicists, dispatched to help Chad wick build his machine.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

She has lived through the days of hanging chads.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024

Antonio Mugica was in Boca Raton when an American presidential election really melted down in 2000, and he watched with shocked fascination as local government officials argued over hanging chads and butterfly ballots.

From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2020

While the country won’t have to worry about hanging or pregnant chads in this election, it’s likely that Americans will go to bed Tuesday night without knowing who the next president will be.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 2, 2020

Unlike in South Florida, where punchcard ballots led to the much-maligned hanging chads, Volusia County used optical scan ballots.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 10, 2020

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 Ian Maclaren