chieftain
Americannoun
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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
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.
The most straightforward, and successful, parts recount the 1836 abduction of a Mexican rancher’s wife named Camila by an Apache band led by the larger-than-life chieftain Mangas Coloradas.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 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
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
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, himself a former corporate chieftain, seemed impressed by the complex as he toured it.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 15, 2023
But the operating chieftain, with deference of course to the patriarch, was a fine-looking man of about thirty-five, broad- shouldered and lithe, with the cream-and-berries complexion of a girl and crisp black curling hair.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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.
