Word.ws English Dictionary

chain of office

chain of office noun: a heavy chain, usually made of gold or another precious metal, worn around a person’s neck to denote their official position.

chain of office: a heavy chain, usually made of gold or another precious metal, worn around a person’s neck to...
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Noun

chain of office (plural chains of office)

  1. A heavy chain, usually made of gold or another precious metal, worn around a person’s neck to denote their official position.
    • When the Court came upon the Hustings, the Livery were acquainted of the choice the Court had made; and the proper Officers immediately put the chain of office round his neck as Lord Mayor elect;1762 October, The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, volume 31, page 215
    • Necklaces were, from the earliest times, a favorite ornament of the male sex in the East; and expressed the dignity of the wearer, as we see in the instances of Joseph, of Daniel, &c.; indeed the gold chain of office, still the badge of civic (and until lately, of military) dignities, is no more...1828, Thomas de Quincey, “Toilette of the Hebrew Lady”, in Theological Essays and Other Papers, published 1854, pages 74-75

Forms of chain of office

pluralchains of office

Questions about chain of office

What does chain of office mean?
Chain of office means a heavy chain, usually made of gold or another precious metal, worn around a person’s neck to denote their official position.
What part of speech is chain of office?
Chain of office is a noun.
What is the plural of chain of office?
The plural of chain of office is chains of office.

Words near chain of office in the dictionary

  1. chain of command
  2. chain of custody
  3. chain of events
  4. chain of evidence
  5. Chain of Lagoons
  6. chain of office
  7. chain of thought
  8. chain of title
  9. chain pickerel
  10. chain pier
  11. chain piers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chain of office (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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