captain.
A chief or leader.
Meaning & usage
A chief or leader.
The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel.
The captain is the last man to leave a sinking ship.
An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major.
A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.
A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to a United States Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel.
A rank qualifying an airline pilot to act as pilot in command of a two-pilot flight crew.
One of the athletes on a sports team who is designated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with a referee or official.
The leader of a group of workers.
John Henry said to the captain, "A man ain't nothing but a man."
The head boy of a school.
A maître d', a headwaiter.
An honorific title given to a prominent person. See colonel.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English capitain, capteyn, from Old French capitaine, from Late Latin capitāneus, from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Doublet of chieftain, also from Old French.
To act as captain
To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English capitain, capteyn, from Old French capitaine, from Late Latin capitāneus, from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Doublet of chieftain, also from Old French.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.