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
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
While Pocahontas eventually married John Rolfe, moved to England and converted to Christianity, she likely knew that her father Powhatan’s chiefdom encompassed much of the Chesapeake Bay area.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 19, 2018
In contrast, no early chiefdom not on the verge of statehood developed writing.
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.
