Etymology
Origin of chiefdom
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.
As Baumgartel explained, "We believe these people were egalitarian hunter-gatherers, not subjects to some powerful chiefdom."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 24, 2025
In the early 1200s, the southern Soninke chiefdom of Sosso took over most of former Ghana as well as the Malinke people.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Archaeologists believe Tequesta, which straddled both banks of the Miami River, became the capital of a chiefdom that stretched across southeast Florida from roughly 500 B.C.E. to the 1500s C.E.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 10, 2023
Under the Piscataway chiefdom, other tribes — including the Yaocomico, Mattawoman, Pamunkey, Mattaponi and Nanjemoy — were interconnected with their own systems of justice, governing and defending themselves.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 7, 2022
Among the dozens of Zulu chiefdoms, the Mtetwa chiefdom enjoyed no advantage whatsoever of technology, writing, or germs over the other chiefdoms, which it nevertheless succeeded in defeating.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
