Word.ws English Dictionary

chieftain

/ˈt͡ʃiːf.tən/

chieftain noun: a leader of a clan or tribe.

Noun

chieftain (plural chieftains)

  1. A leader of a clan or tribe.
    • VI. THE PUYUMA GROUP.
      The tribes belonging to this group occupy the plains in Hinan and that neighbourhood, and call themselves "Puyumas," but the Chinese call them the "Hinan Savages". The Puyumas formed a very powerful State some 300 years ago, and united under one single rule as many as seventy...1907, Yosaburo Takekoshi, “THE SAVAGES AND THEIR TERRITORY.”, in George Braithwaite, transl., Japanese Rule in Formosa, Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 225
    • They were probably the work of individual craftsmen working to meet the chieftains' needs. Their place in the chronology of the big cemeteries is indicated by the less richly-decorated double-springed bronze brooches which are found here.1970, Kazimierz Godłowski, “The chronology of the Late Roman and early migration periods in Central Europe”, in Acta scientiarum litterarumque: Schedae archeologicae, Nakładem Uniwersytetu...
  2. (broadly) A leader of a group.
    • The robber chieftain divided up the spoils.

chieftain meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Indonesian

chieftain in Tamil

தலைவன், நாட்டாமை

chieftain in Kannada

ಪಾಳೆಯಗಾರ, ಪಾಳಯಗಾರ, ಪಾಳೆಗಾರ, ಪಾಳೇಗಾರ, ಪಾಳ್ಯಗಾರ, ಪಾಳ್ಯೆಗಾರ

chieftain in Indonesian

A leader of a clan or tribe
kepala suku

Examples of chieftain in a sentence

  • The chieftain was well versed in Creek history.
  • The various tribal chieftains met each spring to elect an overlord that would lead them in time of war.
  • “The Pitiguara chieftain is brave and bold: Irapuã is cunning and treacherous like the acauã.”

All 23 example sentences with chieftain

Synonyms of chieftain

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of chieftain

Forms of chieftain

pluralchieftains

Plural of chieftain: chieftains

Origin of chieftain

From Middle English cheveteyn, cheftayne, from Old French chevetaine, from Late Latin capitaneus (English captain), from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput- (English head), itself from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Doublet of captain; related to chief.

Words formed from chieftain

Questions about chieftain

What does chieftain mean?
Chieftain means a leader of a clan or tribe.
What is chieftain in Tamil?
Chieftain in Tamil is தலைவன், நாட்டாமை. See Chieftain meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is chieftain?
Chieftain is a noun.
How do you pronounce chieftain?
Chieftain is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃiːf.tən/.
What is the plural of chieftain?
The plural of chieftain is chieftains.

Words near chieftain in the dictionary

  1. chiefs of staff
  2. chiefs of staffs
  3. chiefs of state
  4. chiefship
  5. chiefships
  6. chieftain
  7. chieftaincies
  8. chieftaincy
  9. chieftaindom
  10. chieftaindoms
  11. chieftainess

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chieftain (page history and authors); chieftain (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chieftain (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chieftain.wav.

Cite this entry: “chieftain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chieftain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.