vice president

American

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

Or vice-president

noun

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

vice president British

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

Etymology

Origin of vice president

First recorded in 1565–75

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.

AI agents are basically insiders that operate at machine speed, said Leeron Walter, vice president of strategy at Teramind, an insider-risk-management and behavioral analytics firm.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 2, 2026

"We will have a quantum machine in 2029 that can solve commercially viable, reasonable problems", said Zulfi Alam, corporate vice president of Microsoft Quantum.

From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026

“It’s shifting the whole world,” Owen Lamont, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Acadian Asset Management, said of the AI trade.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 1, 2026

Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said the organization plans to carefully review the decision to halt the upcoming closure.

From Los Angeles Times • May 29, 2026

“What does vice president get to do again?”

From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023