Chairman

//ˈtʃɛɹ.mən// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person presiding over a meeting.
  2. 2
    the male officer who presides at the meetings of an organization wordnet
  3. 3
    The head of a corporate or governmental board of directors, a committee, or other formal entity.

    "When I got ready to leave, why, Chairman Mao came down to the plane. Chairman Mao gave me some Chinese rugs and told me that I was the only prisoner of war that had ever come through there from North China."

  4. 4
    Someone whose job is to carry people in a portable chair, sedan chair, or similar conveyance. historical

    "Mr Western entered; but not before a small wrangling bout had passed between him and his chairmen; for the fellows, who had taken up their burden at the Hercules Pillars, had conceived no hopes of having any future good customer in the squire […]"

Verb
  1. 1
    To serve as chairman.
  2. 2
    act or preside as chair, as of an academic department in a university wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
moderatoradministerchairchairchairwomandirector

Example

More examples

"And I call on the chairman of the Education Committee to support the motion."

Etymology

From chair + -man.

Related phrases

barangay chairmanvice chairmanvice-chairmanboard of directorssedan chair

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.