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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

Pema Gyamtsho, director general of ICIMOD, said the risks were becoming increasingly complex.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said last week that the verification arrangements appeared to be adequate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

More Americans would come, said Michael Izhakov, director general of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, if more flights were available.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

But when the new director general said this is "a moment of real jeopardy, not just for the BBC but for public service broadcasting and the UK as a whole", he has a point.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

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

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

Javier Gonzalez-Olaechea, 67, who was Peru's foreign minister from November 2023 to September 2024, joined the contest to become director-general of the International Labour Organization before nominations closed at the end of Monday.

From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026

Dr Emma Meredith, director-general of the CTPA, says it does not support young people using anti-ageing products or complex and unnecessary routines.

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said Monday that the outbreak was outpacing response efforts, partly because of “significant distrust of outside authorities.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 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

The fair’s director-general, George Davis, at first refused to believe it.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson