Chamberlain
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A senior royal official in charge of superintending the arrangement of domestic affairs and often charged with receiving and paying out money kept in the royal chamber, especially in the United Kingdom and in Denmark.
- 2 an officer who manages the household of a king or nobleman wordnet
- 3 A high officer of state, as currently with the papal camerlengo, but normally now a mainly honorary title.
- 4 the treasurer of a municipal corporation wordnet
- 5 An upper servant of an inn. obsolete
- 1 A surname.
"Shortly after Surrey high school student Hamed Nastoh (called a “faggot” by classmates) killed himself by jumping off a bridge, James Chamberlain wrote a letter to the editor of a small newspaper called the Peace Arch News."
- 2 A township in the Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada. uncountable
- 3 Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister at the outbreak of World War II.
- 4 A village in the Rural Municipality of Sarnia No. 221, Saskatchewan, Canada. uncountable
- 5 A city, the county seat of Brule County, South Dakota, United States. uncountable
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- 6 A village in Tacuarembó Department, Uruguay. uncountable
Example
More examples"British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was forced to resign."
Etymology
From Middle English chamberlein, chaumberlein, chaumberleyn, from Anglo-Norman chamberlenc, Old French chamberlayn, chamberlenc (“chamberlain”), from Frankish *kamarling (“chamberlain”), equivalent to *kamer (“chamber”) + *-ling (“-ling”). Cognate with Old High German chamarling (“chamberlain”). Compare also Late Latin camerārius. More at chamber, -ling.
Related phrases
More for "chamberlain"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.