chieftain
Americannoun
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chieftains
plural
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the chief of a clan or a tribe.
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a leader of a group, band, etc..
the robbers' chieftain.
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Military. Chieftain, Britain's main battle tank since 1969, fitted with a 120 mm gun and two machine guns and weighing 55 tons (50 metric tons).
noun
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the head or leader of a tribe or clan
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the chief of a group of people
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of chieftain
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English cheftayne, variant of chevetaine, from Old French, from Late Latin capitāneus “chief”; see captain
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.
See Examples For:
Datu Atom Malimpnig, a Maguindanaon chieftain, said the newly formed coastline had left the group of fishermen and their families hesitant to return to their now-destroyed homes.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
“What were we supposed to do? Watch them get slaughtered and be silent?” said Muwaffaq Tarif, the spiritual chieftain of the 150,000-strong Druze community in Israel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2025
Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde—Gen. Franco to you and me; Caudillo de España, or chieftain of Spain, to his countrymen—died on Nov. 20, 1975.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
Charity Adams, changed back to “Fort Lee,” I can only imagine how the SCV and others would respond to a re-renaming after any Lee other than their holy Confederate chieftain.
From Slate ● Feb. 12, 2025
For even the Wise might fear to withstand the Nine, when they are gathered together under their fell chieftain.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Private-credit fund chieftains such as KKR co-founder Henry Kravis, Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and Blue Owl co-CEO Marc Lipschultz have all defended the industry, calling the market angst overblown.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
Zero rates took the pressure off corporate chieftains to restructure, innovate, and take risks, as Japan Inc. did before QE arrived.
From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025
On the other hand, the possibly revolutionary impact from artificial intelligence argues that maybe it is still early days, no matter how abrasively these chieftains behave.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2025
Porter’s national prominence grew when, during congressional hearings, she grilled Trump administration officials and corporate chieftains using her whiteboard to make esoteric policy understandable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2025
When Troy fell, Agamemnon was the most fortunate of the victorious chieftains.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
