Word.ws English Dictionary

overchief

overchief noun: a higher-ranking chief; a leader of several chiefs.

Noun

overchief (plural overchiefs)

  1. A higher-ranking chief; a leader of several chiefs.
    • All classes are mentioned, village headmen, overchiefs, tenants and countryheadmen. These last ones are something between a village headman and an overchief.1929, P. O. Bodding, Santal Folk Tales, Volume 3, Williams & Norgate Limited, page 281
    • The Overchief gestured toward a bench, and Demaris sat down, quietly watching the Overchief stalk back and forth behind his desk. The first actual contact with the head of an alien culture was usually the most ticklish part of one of these things. But, again, as usual, it seemed to be going...1955, Algis Budrys, Astounding Science Fiction, Atlas Publishing & Distributing Company Limited, page 15

Forms of overchief

pluraloverchiefs

Origin of overchief

From over- + chief. Piecewise doublet of overhead.

Questions about overchief

What does overchief mean?
Overchief means a higher-ranking chief; a leader of several chiefs.
What part of speech is overchief?
Overchief is a noun.
What is the plural of overchief?
The plural of overchief is overchiefs.

Words near overchief in the dictionary

  1. overcherishing
  2. overchew
  3. overchewed
  4. overchewing
  5. overchews
  6. overchief
  7. overchiefs
  8. overchildish
  9. overchill
  10. overchilled
  11. overchilling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overchief (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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