Chief of Staff

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

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of Chief of Staff¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.

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The chief of staff of the Air Force also announced his retirement without explanation just two years into a four-year term.

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LONDON—In July 2022, Christopher Berry, a 30-year-old British economics teacher who had moved to China to work, traveled to Hangzhou to allegedly meet with one of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s most trusted confidants and his current chief of staff, Cai Qi.

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TEL AVIV—An Israeli airstrike killed the Houthis’ military chief of staff, the most senior official of the Yemeni rebel group to be killed by Israel.

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Al-Ghamari served as the chief of staff of the Houthi armed forces, acting as the movement’s top military strategist and operational commander.

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