noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A person who holds an office, especially one appointed or elected to a public office.

   "But it’s an open question as to what happens if the officeholder is instead fired by the President."

2. 2
   the official who holds an office wordnet
3. 3
   someone who is appointed or elected to an office and who holds a position of trust wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

incumbentbureaucratcivil servantfunctionaryfunctionnaireholdover

Example

More examples

"But it’s an open question as to what happens if the officeholder is instead fired by the President."

Etymology

From office + holder.

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