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Chief of Staff

American  

noun

  1. the senior officer of the U.S. Army or Air Force, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responsible to the secretary of a service branch.

  2. (lowercase) the senior or principal staff officer in a brigade or division or higher unit in the U.S. Army or Marine Corps, in a numbered unit in the U.S. Air Force, or in a unit in the U.S. Navy commanded by a rear admiral or one of higher rank.

  3. (lowercase) the senior officer in command of a general staff, especially that of the military forces of a nation.

  4. (lowercase) the head of any staff.

    the chief of staff for the First Lady.


Chief of Staff British  

noun

  1. the senior staff officer under the commander of a major military formation or organization

  2. the senior officer of each service of the armed forces

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Chief of Staff

First recorded in 1880–85

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.

"The prime minister's chief of staff is someone who has access to a lot of information," she said, urging the government to "come clean about what happened".

From BBC

“They obviously abused Indiana taxpayers and then went and bragged about it, so we terminated them,” said Marcus Barlow, deputy chief of staff at the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, which oversees the state’s Medicaid program.

From The Wall Street Journal

Last week, Israel's military chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, strongly condemned settler violence, calling it "morally and ethically unacceptable" and a danger to security.

From BBC

On the internal post announcing it to staff, the employee said it is “meant to be like an AI chief of staff.”

From The Wall Street Journal

They didn’t know that earlier in the day, Davis had lunch with Chad Mizelle, then the chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi, said people familiar with the matter.

From The Wall Street Journal