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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chieftain.

A leader of a clan or tribe.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈt͡ʃiːf.tən//ˈt͡ʃiːf.tɪn/
  1. A leader of a clan or tribe.

  2. A leader of a group.

    broadly
    The robber chieftain divided up the spoils.
Where this word comes from

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.

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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.