mayor
Americannoun
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mayors
plural
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the chief executive official, usually elected, of a city, village, or town.
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the chief magistrate of a city or borough.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mayor
First recorded in 1250–1300; from Medieval Latin major major; replacing Middle English mer, mair, from Old French maire
Explanation
The mayor is the leader of a city. He or she heads the city government. Just as a president leads a country, a mayor leads a city. Like other politicians, mayors must run for office and win an election. The word mayor comes from the Old French maire for "head of a city or town government" but most mayors probably like the original meaning, which is "greater, superior." Alas, mayors do run cities but calling them all superior is a stretch! In the United States, the president leads the country, a governor leads a state, and a mayor leads a city. If it’s used as a title for a particular mayor, as in Mayor Smith, it’s capitalized.
Vocabulary lists containing mayor
Citizenship (Civics) - Middle School
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Citizenship (Civics) - Introductory
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American Government and Civics, List 2
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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:
The last challenger to defeat an incumbent mayor was then-City Councilmember Antonio Villaraigosa, who defeated James K. Hahn for reelection in 2005.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
Bass had been a prominent member of Congress before becoming LA's first black mayor.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
"I'm deeply honored to be your next mayor," said Raman, 45, in a statement on social media.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
“We have 25 unions,” the mayor said in an interview last week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
Grabarek served as Durham’s mayor from 1963 to 1971, and then returned to private practice as a CPA.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
“I hope I can change the relationship with local government,” Becerra said, adding that he wants his administration to work closely with mayors and county supervisors around the state.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
Dave Bing and Kevin Johnson became the Democratic mayors of Detroit and Sacramento, respectively.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
The BBC has been told mayors could choose to use the tax revenues they received from the government to offer grants to individual residents or businesses.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Since opening, No10 North has hosted summits of regional mayors, at least two of which have been partly held as video calls on Microsoft Teams.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
And we’d enlisted mayors from five hundred cities and towns across the country to commit to tackling childhood obesity on the local level.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
