chairperson

[chair-pur-suhn]

noun

1. a person who presides over a meeting, committee, board, etc.

2. the administrative head of a department in a high school, college, or university.

chairperson

/ ˈtʃɛəˌpɜːsən /

noun

1. another word for chairman

Gender Note

Chairperson has, since the 1960s, come to be used widely as an alternative to either chairman or chairwoman. This change was motivated largely by a desire to avoid chairman, which was felt to be inappropriate and even sexually discriminatory when applied to a woman. Chairperson is standard in all varieties of speech and writing. Despite such widespread acceptance, some organizations and publications do not use chairperson at all, usually on the grounds that it is awkward and that chairman is a well-established generic term. Many style guides advocate use of the term chair to designate the presiding officer, thus avoiding charges of both sexism and awkwardness: Jim will be chair of the entertainment committee this year, and Jane will be chair next year. See also -man, -person, -woman.

Other Word Forms

• chairpersonship noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of chairperson¹

First recorded in 1970–75; chair(man) + -person

Example Sentences

Louise McCullough, the chairperson of east Belfast community charity Elevate East, said the housing situation "relates very closely to a lot of the social issues".

From BBC

A couple of hours before the polls closed, Malawi Electoral Commission chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja said 3.7 million people - just half of those who had registered to vote - had cast their ballot.

From BBC

But two members have since stepped down, and there has been no permanent chairperson for more than a year.

From BBC

“It’s a really hard adjustment,” said Golden, chairperson of the Senate’s Natural Resources and Wildfire Committee.

From Salon

“I thought people were going to die that day,” said Tala Ali, a chairperson of the Clifton Mosque in Cincinnati and a trained protest marshal.

From Salon