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• director general
  director general

  noun

  the executive head of an organization or of a major subdivision, as a branch or agency, of government.
• director-general
  director-general

  noun

  the head of a large organization such as the CBI or BBC

director general

American  

noun

directors general plural

1. the executive head of an organization or of a major subdivision, as a branch or agency, of government.

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director-general British  

noun

1. the head of a large organization such as the CBI or BBC

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• directors general
  plural

Etymology

Origin of director general

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

director general director-general

MI5's director general, Sir Ken McCallum, apologised for any distress caused by "mistakes in the litigation"

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

AfricaMuseum director general Bart Ouvry said the Belgian institution turned down KoBold's offer over concerns about giving a single private actor privileged access.

From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026

"The inspections will indeed take place," International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi told reporters in Japan.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

Also under scrutiny is the alleged proximity between Diez and Mercedes Gonzalez, a former Socialist activist and elected official who was appointed director general of the Civil Guard in 2024 at the government's proposal.

From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026

Perhaps Yi Young-hoon, the director general of the National Museum of Korea, said it best.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

"Please keep the destination in sight," urged the UN health agency's director-general.

From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026

“Hospitals are fighting with no tools at all,” Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC, said at a briefing Saturday in Kampala, in neighboring Uganda.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 24, 2026

WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the risk in the wider region in Africa was "high" but that it remained "low" globally.

From BBC ● May 23, 2026

The director-general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, has warned repeatedly about the risk of a radioactive incident at such plants.

From Salon ● May 21, 2026

“Everyone who defects has adjustment problems,” Ko Gyoung-bin, the director-general of Hanawon, told me when I visited the place.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden