Ringleader

//ˈɹɪŋˌliːdəɹ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A leader of a group of people, especially an unofficial group.

    "Once, on a confident whim, I approached the group of popular girls in an attempt to broaden my circle. Their ringleader took one glance at my new Aeropostale T-shirt and whispered to her clones, “Yeah, Aero's definitely out now.”"

  2. 2
    a person who leads (especially in illicit activities) wordnet
  3. 3
    A person who starts and leads a disturbance (such as a riot), a conspiracy, or a criminal gang.

    "The police arrested the ringleaders of the smuggling operation."

Synonyms

All synonyms
agent provocateuragitatoragitpropbell cowbell marebellwether

Example

More examples

"They regarded him as the ringleader of the murder case."

Etymology

From ring + leader.

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