chief

American  

[cheef] / tʃif /

noun

1. the head or leader of an organized body of people; the person highest in authority.

   the chief of police.

2. the head or ruler of a tribe or clan.

   an Indian chief.

3. U.S. Army. Chief, a title of some advisers to the Chief of Staff, who do not, in most instances, command the troop units of their arms or services.

   Chief of Engineers;

   Chief Signal Officer.

4. Informal: Sometimes Offensive. boss or leader.

   We'll have to talk to the chief about this.

5. Heraldry.

   1. the upper area of an escutcheon.

   2. an ordinary occupying this area.

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adjective

1. highest in rank or authority.

   the chief priest;

   the chief administrator.

   Antonyms:

   subordinate

2. most important; principal.

   his chief merit;

   the chief difficulty.

   Synonyms:

   paramount, prime, leading, foremost, cardinal

adverb

1. Archaic. chiefly; principally.

idioms

1. in chief,

   1. in the chief position; highest in rank (used in combination).

      editor in chief; commander in chief.

   2. Heraldry. in the upper part of an escutcheon.

chief British  

/ tʃiːf /

noun

1. the head, leader, or most important individual in a group or body of people

2. another word for chieftain

3. heraldry the upper third of a shield

4. primarily; especially

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adjective

1. (prenominal)

   1. most important; principal

   2. highest in rank or authority

adverb

1. archaic principally

Sensitive Note

See powwow.

Related Words

See capital ¹.

Other Word Forms

• chiefless adjective
• chiefship noun
• subchief noun
• underchief noun

Etymology

Origin of chief

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-French chief, chef, Old French chef, from unattested Vulgar Latin capum, re-formation of Latin caput head

Example Sentences

Tim Doggett is the chief executive of the Chemical Business Association which represents the chemical supply chain from manufacturers to distributors, transporters and traders, and director of the Trade Association Forum in the UK.

From BBC

The man named Larry was Epstein's chief pilot, who arranged many of his landings and logistics.

From BBC

An oversight board will now consider the situation, the spokeswoman added, and the chief statistician will provide an update in due course.

From BBC

“Unless housing supply increases, these additional potential buyers becoming active in the market could simply push up home prices,” Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors’ chief economist, said recently.

From Barron's

“These are the companies that you cannot type something in a prompt and disrupt,” said Josh Brown, chief executive at Ritholtz Wealth Management, who coined the term “HALO” earlier this month.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• captain
• commander
• director
• head
• leader
• manager
• ruler
• superintendent
• supervisor