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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chief.

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

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/t͡ʃiːf/

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

    All firefighters report to the fire chief.

  2. Headship, the status of being a chief or leader.

    uncountable
    Bob is our troubleshooter in chief.

  3. 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.

  4. The principal part or top of anything.

  5. An informal term of address.

    ironic · sometimes

  6. An informal term of address. An informal term of address for a Native American or First Nations man.

    ironic · offensive · sometimes
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *káput Proto-Italic *kaput Latin caput Vulgar Latin capus Old French chiefbor. Middle English chef English chief Inherited from Middle English chef, borrowed from Old French chief, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput, from Proto-Italic *kaput, from Proto-Indo-European *káput, from *kap-, possibly from *kap-, possibly borrowed from a substrate language. Doublet of cape (“point of land”), capo, caput, and chef through Latin (possibly also related to cape (“sleeveless garment”) and cap (“head covering”) from Latin cappa); doublet of head and Howth through Proto-Indo-European.

adj/t͡ʃiːf/

  1. Primary; principal.

    Negligence was the chief cause of the disaster.

  2. Intimate, friendly.

    Scotland
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *káput Proto-Italic *kaput Latin caput Vulgar Latin capus Old French chiefbor. Middle English chef English chief Inherited from Middle English chef, borrowed from Old French chief, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput, from Proto-Italic *kaput, from Proto-Indo-European *káput, from *kap-, possibly from *kap-, possibly borrowed from a substrate language. Doublet of cape (“point of land”), capo, caput, and chef through Latin (possibly also related to cape (“sleeveless garment”) and cap (“head covering”) from Latin cappa); doublet of head and Howth through Proto-Indo-European.

verb/t͡ʃiːf/

  1. To smoke cannabis.

    slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *káput Proto-Italic *kaput Latin caput Vulgar Latin capus Old French chiefbor. Middle English chef English chief Inherited from Middle English chef, borrowed from Old French chief, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput, from Proto-Italic *kaput, from Proto-Indo-European *káput, from *kap-, possibly from *kap-, possibly borrowed from a substrate language. Doublet of cape (“point of land”), capo, caput, and chef through Latin (possibly also related to cape (“sleeveless garment”) and cap (“head covering”) from Latin cappa); doublet of head and Howth through Proto-Indo-European.

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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.