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.
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
During the recount, was his sense of mental well-being intact or hanging like a chad?
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 27, 2016
At the end, everyone on the inside of the charmed circle lives happily ever after, with not a single dangling chad to lose sleep over.
From Salon ● May 1, 2016
It was signed by the alliance's lead attorney, David Boies, who took on Microsoft, fought for Al Gore in the hanging chad presidential election of 2000, and litigated on behalf of gay marriage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2016
No, but chad been as good they had as this, ich wot well.
From Gammer Gurton's Needle by Art, Mr. S. Mr. of
In an email, Show Faith by Works founder Chad Schnitger said the group had since gone in a different direction and the budget has mostly gone to build a mobile museum with bespoke video.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Chad Beynon, an analyst at Macquarie, said in-play betting had taken over from the more traditional pre-match punt.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
The actor was joined by Molly Shannon, his former ‘Saturday Night Live’ castmate, in a sketch, and a long-running gag with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith continued.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026
Arise has repeatedly denied accusations of fraud and/or corruption in the awarding of public contracts, notably in Gabon and Chad.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Lindsey, a parole agent at Chad, was addressing Richard and a half dozen other young men in a small meeting room inside Chad’s Feather Hall, the living quarters for the facility’s lowest-risk, best-behaving youths.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
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
It was where Senga Nengudi debuted her sculptures of stretched-out pantyhose weighted with sand, and where Howardena Pindell first showed her abstract “dot” paintings, composed of paper chads.
From New York Times ● Sep. 13, 2022
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 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.
