chairman
Americannoun
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the presiding officer of a meeting, committee, board, etc.
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the administrative head of a department in a high school, college, or university.
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someone employed to carry or wheel a person in a chair.
verb (used with object)
noun
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Also called: chairperson. chairwoman. a person who presides over a company's board of directors, a committee, a debate, an administrative department, etc
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history someone who carries a sedan chair
Usage
Chairman can seem inappropriate when applied to a woman, while chairwoman can be offensive. Chair and chairperson can be applied to either a man or a woman; chair is generally preferred to chairperson
Gender
Is it chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson? See chairperson.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of chairman
Explanation
A chairman is the leader of a business meeting or group. The chairman often opens a meeting by addressing the group and explaining what the agenda will be. Charities, clubs, and the boards of companies have a chairman who acts as president or leader. The noun chairman can refer to this person, whether male or female, though sometimes a woman is called a chairwoman. These days, it's more common still to simply call her (or him) a chair. The word chairman comes from a sense of "occupying a chair of authority," while "presiding member of a corporate body" first emerged in the 18th century.
Vocabulary lists containing chairman
The Legislative Branch, Sections 4–6
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Stuart Little
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Jens Spahn, the chairman of the CDU's faction in the German parliament, and his husband recently became parents to a son born to a surrogate mother in the United States, according to German media reports.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Pensana is currently negotiating for up to $160 million in debt financing backed by the Export-Import Bank, which is conditional on it selling rare-earth products directly into the U.S., according to company chairman Paul Atherley.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Thomas Hayes, chairman of investment-management firm Great Hill Capital, wrote on X that the reported offer undervalued PayPal given its strong free cash flow and improving margins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Lord Jim O'Neill was chief economist with Goldman Sachs, commercial secretary to the Treasury under David Cameron, a driving force behind the Northern Powerhouse, chairman of the Cities Growth Commission and has been advising Burnham.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
“Only the trustees can give permission. Four signatures are required: the chairman, plus three other board members.”
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
To the chairmen of those committees, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Jim Jordan: What is taking so long?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Before you get to that stage, however, club owners and chairmen will rely on their sporting director and chief executive to compile a list of names.
From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026
His term as governor doesn’t expire until 2028, and most chairmen step down from the board when their chairmanship ends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
Most chairmen leave when their terms expire, but they do not have to -- and Powell could remain a governor until 2028.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
I wrote a note to all the chairmen of English departments who had offered me jobs.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
At Edinburgh in 1910 he chairmaned the great interdenominational world conference, out of which evolved in 1920 the I.M.C., which he has headed ever since.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Manhattan last week famed, forthright Physiologist Anton J. Carlson of the University of Chicago chairmaned a meeting aimed at overcoming this situation.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Senate committee, chairmaned by Florida's New-Dealing Pepper, proposed to do something to better the nation's health.
From Time Magazine Archive
Except for Joseph Patrick Kennedy, who chairmaned the Commission for its first ten months and got it off to a handsome start, he has been its only boss.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was late in the afternoon of the same day that the Federative Council sent its committee, chairmaned by Engineer Scott, to interview the ex-general manager at his rooms in the Clarendon.
From The Grafters by Lynde, Francis
In London the German and Italian Ambassadors fortnight ago showed the solidarity of Berlin and Rome by arriving together for sessions of the increasingly farcical International Committee for Non-intervention chairmanned by Lord Plymouth.
From Time Magazine Archive
Two interests which did not think themselves sufficiently respected were the protective bondholders' committee headed by Vice President John W. Stedman of Prudential Insurance Co. and an independent committee chairmanned by Historian Charles A. Beard.
From Time Magazine Archive
These experts were chairmanned by Sir John Maffey and the official character of the document was so self-evident that the British Foreign Office was constrained to admit its genuineness, although deprecating it as "old."
From Time Magazine Archive
Directly behind the 13-man labor committee, chairmanned by Utah's bald and scholarly Elbert Duncan Thomas, sat Mrs. Taft placidly knitting on a sweater for a grandson.
From Time Magazine Archive
On that date the Quintuplets' Board of Guardians, chairmanned by Ontario Surrogate H. R. Valin, will hand them over for future bringing up to the gentle Grey Nuns of Ontario's Pembroke Diocese.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
