vice president

American  

[vahys prez-i-duhnt] / ˈvaɪs ˈprɛz ɪ dənt /

Or vice-president

noun

• vice presidents
  plural

1. an officer next in rank to a president who serves as president in the president's absence.

2. an officer next in rank to a president who serves as a deputy to the president or oversees a special division or function.

3. U.S. Government. the officer of this rank who is elected at the same time as the president and who succeeds to the presidency upon the resignation, removal, death, or disability of the president.

   Lincoln's first vice president was Hannibal Hamlin.

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vice president British  

noun

1. Abbreviation: VP.   V. Pres.  an officer ranking immediately below a president and serving as his deputy. A vice president takes the president's place during his absence or incapacity, after his death, and in certain other circumstances

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Usage

Why is the term vice president in the news? On August 11, 2020, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden announced he selected California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate for the 2020 presidential election.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• vice presidency
  noun
• vice-presidency
  noun
• vice presidential
  adjective
• vice-presidential
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• vice presidents
  plural

Etymology

Origin of vice president

First recorded in 1565–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vice president

One of them is Dr Fiona Hunter, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Scotland.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

After four years at Porch, Sharma joined Meta, where she oversaw products including Messenger and rose rapidly to vice president.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

Ryan Lee, senior vice president of product and strategy at Direxion, said strong results from cloud-services providers like Oracle often provide a tailwind for hardware makers that are supplying the data-center build-out.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026

Amsler spent the previous 22 seasons with the Heat, most recently serving as vice president of player personnel and the general manager of G League affiliate Sioux Falls Skyforce.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

The vice president of the Durham Merchants Association complained, with some justification, that the business community was being blamed for all of Durham’s ills.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson