figurehead
Americannoun
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a person nominally having a prominent position, but no real authority
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a carved bust or full-length figure at the upper end of the stems of some sailing vessels
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of figurehead
Explanation
A figurehead is someone who appears to be in charge, but who really holds very little influence. In many countries today, kings and queens are merely figureheads. A ceremonial president or king — one installed as a symbolic head of a country, while someone else holds the real power — is one type of figurehead. If a retiring businesswoman promotes her son to be the new CEO of her company, while putting a different person in charge of running the business, the son is just a figurehead. The word figurehead comes from its original meaning, the figures carved at the front of old sailing ships.
Vocabulary lists containing figurehead
Revolution in Our Time
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Civilizations of East Asia and Southeast Asia, Lesson 4–7
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fig
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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:
Does a new figurehead automatically deliver a better city region?
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Ed Miliband became foreign minister, Wes Streeting -- who abandoned plans to run against Burnham for the Labour leadership -- was named defence minister, and left-wing figurehead Angela Rayner returned to government.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
After worrying that Homelander’s delusions of becoming a religious figurehead were too far-fetched, Kripke came to see that storyline “as a metaphor for the ultimate level of narcissism.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
The secretary last year had considered installing someone else to run the FDA while Makary remained a figurehead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
Often she would climb out to the figurehead, despite her broken leg, and sit, looking down at the ground below.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
The attacks against AI figureheads have no demonstrable ties to one another, nor do they claim affiliation with any shared organization.
From Barron's ● Apr. 29, 2026
Maggie Thatcher came a few years before Reagan, but they were closely allied and historically linked as figureheads of the triumphant New Right.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026
But on Sunday, it rallied around one of Wall Street’s most recognizable figureheads: the 72-year-old Fed chair.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
There is no room for non-playing figureheads at a major tournament.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2025
For indeed, we are nothing but figureheads to complex forces which seem to be under a kind of impulse.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
