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chieftain

American  
[cheef-tuhn, -tin] / ˈtʃif tən, -tɪn /

noun

  1. the chief of a clan or a tribe.

  2. a leader of a group, band, etc..

    the robbers' chieftain.

  3. Military. Chieftain, Britain's main battle tank since 1969, fitted with a 120 mm gun and two machine guns and weighing 55 tons (50 metric tons).

chieftain British  
/ ˈtʃiːftən, -tɪn /

noun

  1. the head or leader of a tribe or clan

  2. the chief of a group of people

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • chieftaincy noun
  • chieftainship noun

Etymology

Origin of chieftain

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English cheftayne, variant of chevetaine, from Old French, from Late Latin capitāneus “chief”; captain

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.