Chieftainship

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being a chieftain uncountable

    "1852 Commission to Inquire into the Past and Present State of the Kafirs Shortly after the death of his father, Chaka obtained the chieftainship of the Zulu nation, through the influence of his patron."

  2. 2
    the position of chieftain wordnet
  3. 3
    The area ruled by a chieftain countable

    "They exist in chieftainships, each head of which has his own local jurisdiction, civil and criminal."

Synonyms

All synonyms
chieferyarchbishopricaristocracybishopricchancellerychiefery

Example

More examples

"1852 Commission to Inquire into the Past and Present State of the Kafirs Shortly after the death of his father, Chaka obtained the chieftainship of the Zulu nation, through the influence of his patron."

Etymology

From chieftain + -ship. Piecewise doublet of captainship.

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