Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use chief in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Chief means the leader or head of a tribe, organisation, business unit, or other group. Example: “All firefighters report to the fire chief.”

Examples of chief by meaning

nounThe leader or head of a tribe, organisation, business unit, or other group.

  • All firefighters report to the fire chief.
  • My father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was a chief by both blood and custom.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 4

nounHeadship, the status of being a chief or leader.

  • Bob is our troubleshooter in chief.

nounAn informal term of address.

  • “How old are you, chief?” the elevator guy said.1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 119

adjectivePrimary; principal.

  • Negligence was the chief cause of the disaster.
  • Researchers found that one of the chief effects of drinking was to reduce people's ability to monitor their own behavior.2011, Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney, Willpower, →ISBN, page 113

adjectiveIntimate, friendly.

  • 'Everybody knows how chief you and she were.2006, James Robertson, The Testament of Gideon Mack, page 324

More sentences with chief

  • The senator asked the party chief to put the hard word on his potential rivals.From the entry hard
  • Eton College has been called "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".From the entry nurse
  • Of the sons of Uzziel; Amminadab the chief, and his brethren an hundred and twelve.From the entry Uzziel
  • And Ira also the Jairite was a chief ruler about David.From the entry Ira
  • Many people are unhappy with the sacking of the chief constable and demand his immediate reinstatement.From the entry reinstatement
  • Mr Blackie, please state for the record your job title and chief duties.From the entry blackie
  • Just because he has his own office, he thinks he's the big white chief.From the entry big white chief
  • Even the chief of police is not above suspicion.From the entry above
  • Reporters rained questions on the beleaguered police chief.From the entry rain
  • Chief of Staff is the second-highest position in the army.From the entry position
  • His designation as chief justice was controversial.From the entry designation
  • In the Royal Navy the ratings, in order, are: ordinary seaman, able seaman, leading seaman, petty officer and chief petty officer.From the entry rating
  • When it's time to check for provocation, ask the patient about what makes their chief complaint better or worse.From the entry provocation
  • Airlines are the chief customers of the commercial divisions of large-aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer.From the entry customer
  • My husband is taking over the accounts department during the holiday period, while the chief accountant is away.From the entry take over
  • Internecine strife in Gaza claimed its most senior victim yesterday when militants assassinated one of the most hated security chiefs there.From the entry internecine
  • He is the chief disciplinarian in the school.From the entry disciplinarian
  • He's really getting stuck in to his new job as chief executive. He's sacked half the boardroom staff already.From the entry get stuck in
  • The chief accountant has run off with his secretary!From the entry run off with
  • Some traditional societies have a single hereditary tribal chief, others a whole hierarchy of elected tribal chiefs, etc.From the entry tribal chief
  • The tribal chiefs vied to outfeast one another.From the entry outfeast
  • No, it can't be Bill who gets assigned to this task. That dude is the slacker in chief around here.From the entry in chief
  • The chief lord over all other lords was the king.From the entry chief lord
  • The new fire chief really put us through our paces: we had to wash all the fire trucks and then had two different fire drills.From the entry put someone through their paces
  • I am a research assistant for a cryoscience consortium and my chief duty is to conduct reviews of current scholarship on Antarctic ice movement.From the entry research assistant
  • Most feudal obligations were owed to the chief lord of the estate, but others were owed only and directly to the king of the realm.From the entry chief lord
  • Tech bros sometimes say they're against so-called social engineering; my brother in Christ, your technological innovations have been a chief wellspring of such reengineering.From the entry my brother in Christ
  • And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.From the entry Crispus
  • Trump said he would not tell a “vicious joke” about the chief justice, who was present.2026 February 20, Adam Liptak, “The Supreme Court’s Declaration of Independence”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York…. From the entry kiss someone's ass
  • Army chief Joseph Aoun was voted president after two rounds of voting.2025 January 9, Tamara Qiblawi, “US-backed army chief elected Lebanon’s president, ending years-long stalemate”, in CNN, archived from the…. From the entry joseph
  • Waltz, apparently accidentally, added Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the chain.2025 March 24, Katie Bo Lillis, Kaitlan Collins, Jeff Zeleny, Evan Perez, Oren Liebermann, Jamie Gangel, Kit Maher and Sean Lyngaas…. From the entry pete
  • Bensman joins Jon Feere, another CIS alumnus who rejoined the Trump administration as ICE’s chief of staff.2025 August 28, Caleb Kieffer, R.G. Cravens, “Homeland Security deploys white nationalist, anti-immigrant graphics to recruit”, in…. From the entry cis
  • Anderson will report to Rick McKenney, president and chief executive officer at Unum Group.2025 May 8, “Unum Group Names Shelia Anderson Executive Vice President, Chief Information and Digital Officer”, in Business Wire, archived…. From the entry Shelia

Meaning of chief

  1. noun The leader or head of a tribe, organisation, business unit, or other group.
  2. noun Headship, the status of being a chief or leader.
  3. noun The top part of a shield or escutcheon; more specifically, an ordinary consisting of the upper part of the field cut off by a horizontal line, generally occupying the top third.

Full definition of chief

Questions about chief in a sentence

How do you use chief in a sentence?
Chief is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “All firefighters report to the fire chief.”
What is a short sentence with chief?
“Bob is our troubleshooter in chief.”
What does chief mean?
Chief means the leader or head of a tribe, organisation, business unit, or other group.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chief (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use chief in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/chief. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.