a person in charge of a particular department, group of workers, etc., as in a factory or the like.
the member of a jury selected to preside over and speak for all the jurors on the panel.
Gender-neutral form: supervisor. a person, often experienced, who supervises other workmen
Female equivalent: forewoman. law the principal juror, who presides at the deliberations of a jury
See -man.
1175–1225; Middle English forman chief servant, steward. See fore-, man
On many job sites, the boss or supervisor is called the foreman. If you get a job on a construction crew, the foreman is the person in charge. While the supervisor in an office, hospital, or school has a totally different title, in manual labor it's common to use the word foreman. This is true in factories and plants, as well as on ranches and railroads. Even on a jury there's a foreman, the member who announces the group's verdict. A woman in one of these roles might be called foreman, forewoman, or foreperson. A simpler, gender-neutral compromise is to use "supervisor" instead.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After the jury foreman, when asked “How say you?” answered “Guilty,” 34 times, Trump turned to face the back of the room, looking uncharacteristically stricken.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
Daniel, the foreman in this remote, informal, small-scale mine in Kono, the diamond region of Sierra Leone, shows me the gravel he's picking through with his fingers.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
His absence from work resulted in a demotion from lead foreman to an assistant role.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
My father, Rudy, was the foreman at Associated Transport, a huge trucking company with a branch in Richmond that went bankrupt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025
She brought us a few groceries and introduced us to the camp foreman, who spoke Spanish.
From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez
George Foreman and Muhammad Ali climbed off the couch too many times to mention.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
UN special rapporteurs Dr Alice Edwards and Mai Sato said proceedings against Lindsay and Craig Foreman, from East Sussex, had been marked by grave irregularities.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
Craig and Lindsay Foreman, from East Sussex, have been held since January 2025 and were sentenced to 10 years in February on espionage charges which they deny.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
Craig Foreman is believed to be 12 days into a hunger strike, which he began after the couple's phone access was cut off in early May.
From BBC ● May 20, 2026
It was a two-shot foul and their center, a big guy who looked like George Foreman, blew the first shot and made the second.
From "Slam!" by Walter Dean Myers
The colonial trade also ravaged the archipelago's forests and wrecked communities, with able-bodied men required to offer 40 days of unpaid service to fell trees and build ships under Spanish foremen.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
Construction-software firms are selling AI-powered tools that can assist site managers and foremen with work like analyzing sites for potential safety violations—tasks AI models can accomplish by searching through and synthesizing large amounts of data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
Three construction foremen taking a break in an alleyway on a recent Wednesday are among the most coveted voters in the country: middle-aged Black men and union members, living in Pennsylvania, the largest battleground state.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2024
The contracts apply to members of the ILWU’s Coast Longshore Division — marine clerks, foremen and longshore workers employed at 29 West Coast ports.
From Seattle Times ● May 27, 2022
Meanwhile, work on the hospital did not progress smoothly; twice the contractor was changed, and each man in turn appointed new foremen, and these brought their own labourers.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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.
