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 Glasgow need a figurehead to raise its profile?
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Statues of independence hero Aung San are quietly disappearing across Myanmar in a contest over his legacy as father of both the nation and of detained democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 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
True to Bailey’s word, the lintel above the door was adorned with a figurehead carved as a mermaid, flakes of green peeling from her tail.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
In Colonial-era America, sculpture was a craft, not an art, its practitioners artisans who fashioned utilitarian objects like ships’ figureheads and shop signs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
A MIT report and commentary from figureheads like Sam Altman over the summer sparked the market paranoia that has caused investors to increasingly sour on AI’s prospects.
From Barron's ● Nov. 18, 2025
Now vaguely older, the girls have become figureheads for opposing sides, with Glinda an Emerald City influencer and Elphaba an animal rights activist: the lime-colored embodiment of Greenpeace.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2025
"When you're working towards peace, it doesn't just begin with the figureheads, it begins with smaller groups – and I think that's important to celebrate."
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2025
Always she waited, her eyes straining to make out the figure on the prow, and always, at the sight of those strange, glistening white figureheads, her heart sank.
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
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.
