chairman
Americannoun
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the presiding officer of a meeting, committee, board, etc.
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the administrative head of a department in a high school, college, or university.
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someone employed to carry or wheel a person in a chair.
verb (used with object)
noun
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Also called: chairperson. chairwoman. a person who presides over a company's board of directors, a committee, a debate, an administrative department, etc
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history someone who carries a sedan chair
Usage
Chairman can seem inappropriate when applied to a woman, while chairwoman can be offensive. Chair and chairperson can be applied to either a man or a woman; chair is generally preferred to chairperson
Gender
Is it chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson? See chairperson.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of chairman
Explanation
A chairman is the leader of a business meeting or group. The chairman often opens a meeting by addressing the group and explaining what the agenda will be. Charities, clubs, and the boards of companies have a chairman who acts as president or leader. The noun chairman can refer to this person, whether male or female, though sometimes a woman is called a chairwoman. These days, it's more common still to simply call her (or him) a chair. The word chairman comes from a sense of "occupying a chair of authority," while "presiding member of a corporate body" first emerged in the 18th century.
Vocabulary lists containing chairman
The Legislative Branch, Sections 4–6
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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:
"We may have a new chairman, but the old guard is now worried about where the economy has moved since the beginning of the year."
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Sandy McCook, Nethy Bridge Community Council chairman, said it was hoped rain that has been falling since Monday night would make a "huge difference".
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Now, war in “Ukraine and elsewhere is bringing back munitions that have a very different supply chain,” like artillery shells, said Will Somerindyke, the chairman of Regulus Global, a defense manufacturing and logistics company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
He adds that investors should remember the saying of the late Charlie Munger, longtime vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway: “The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
Six-Fingers, the chairman of the new Neighborhood Dictatorship Group, presided over them, wearing a red armband and an expression of importance.
From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang
Indeed, Warsh was less willing than previous Fed chairmen to speculate much on the path of the economy, inflation and interest rates during his first press conference.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
Most chairmen leave when their terms expire, but they do not have to -- and Powell could remain a governor until 2028.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
In previous eras, Fed chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke referred to the “bond-yield conundrum,” when despite their repeated hiking of interest rates, long-term bond yields kept falling.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 5, 2025
For the longest time, boardroom chaos was as much a part of Rangers as mascot Broxi Bear - a revolving door of owners, chairmen, chief executives, sporting directors and recruitment specialists.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2025
I wrote a note to all the chairmen of English departments who had offered me jobs.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
In Manhattan last week famed, forthright Physiologist Anton J. Carlson of the University of Chicago chairmaned a meeting aimed at overcoming this situation.
From Time Magazine Archive
Except for Joseph Patrick Kennedy, who chairmaned the Commission for its first ten months and got it off to a handsome start, he has been its only boss.
From Time Magazine Archive
As such he supervised the corporation's financial affairs, chairmaned some of its most important committees.
From Time Magazine Archive
It provides that all legal disputes which may arise between Austria and Czechoslovakia are to be submitted to an impartial commission chairmaned by an appointee of the Swiss Government.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was late in the afternoon of the same day that the Federative Council sent its committee, chairmaned by Engineer Scott, to interview the ex-general manager at his rooms in the Clarendon.
From The Grafters by Lynde, Francis
That was bad news for Mississippi's Senator Stephens who was not only up for re-election but also chairmanned the Senate Committee before which the Thorp nomination was pending.
From Time Magazine Archive
Before the Appropriations subcommittee chairmanned by Colorado's compact little Senator Adams, Alabama's gift to the drama tossed aside her blue felt hat, perched herself on the table and read a prepared statement.
From Time Magazine Archive
Because of shrewdly worded British reservations the Import Duties Advisory Committee chairmanned by hatchet-faced, be-monocled Sir George May can up tariffs to protect any British industry which asked protection before the "truce" was signed.
From Time Magazine Archive
Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles, chairmanned by President Hoover's great & good friend Henry Mauris Robinson, reported a ratio of cash & Governments to deposits of 26%.
From Time Magazine Archive
These experts were chairmanned by Sir John Maffey and the official character of the document was so self-evident that the British Foreign Office was constrained to admit its genuineness, although deprecating it as "old."
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
