What does "figurehead" mean?

A carved figure on the prow of a sailing ship.

What is a synonym for "figurehead"?

Common synonyms include: front man, a nobody, a nothing, adherent, advocate, alter ego.

Pronounced //ˈfɪɡjəɹˌhɛd//.

//ˈfɪɡjəɹˌhɛd// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
A carved figure on the prow of a sailing ship.
2
figure on the bow of some sailing vessels wordnet
3
Someone in a nominal position of leadership who has little to no actual power. broadly
"Evidently he did not mean to be a mere figurehead, but to carry on the old tradition of Wilsthorpe's; and that was considered to be a good thing in itself and an augury for future prosperity."
4
a person used as a cover for some questionable activity wordnet
5
A person's face. obsolete, slang
"HATCHET. Bring up, I say, or I'll spoil your figurehead. [Lifting his cudgel]"

"The "retired" president of that company runs the whole show from behind the scenes, so the current president is nothing but a figurehead."

From figure + head.

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