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mayor.

The chief executive of the municipal government of a city, borough, etc., formerly (historical) usually appointed as a caretaker by European royal courts but now usually appointed or elected locally.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɛə̯/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmeɪ̯.ɚ/General-American/ˈmɛɚ//ˈmɛɹ/
  1. The chief executive of the municipal government of a city, borough, etc., formerly (historical) usually appointed as a caretaker by European royal courts but now usually appointed or elected locally.

  2. Ellipsis of mayor of the palace, the royal stewards of the Frankish Empire.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · historical
  3. Synonym of mair, various former officials in the Kingdom of Scotland.

    historical
  4. A member of a city council.

    Ireland · obsolete · rare
  5. A high justice, an important judge.

    historical · obsolete
  6. A largely ceremonial position in some municipal governments that presides over the city council while a contracted city manager holds actual executive power.

    US
  7. A local VIP, a muckamuck or big shot reckoned to lead some local group.

    figuratively · humorous
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s Proto-Indo-European *-yōs Proto-Indo-European *méǵyōs Proto-Italic *majjōs Latin maior Old French mairebor. Middle English maire English mayor From Middle English maire, from Old French maire (“head of a city or town government”), a substantivation of Old French maire (“greater”), from Latin maior (“bigger, greater, superior”), comparative of magnus (“big, great”). Doublet of major. Cognate with Old High German meior (“estate manager, steward, bailiff”) (modern German Meier), Middle Dutch meier (“administrator, steward, bailiff”) (modern Dutch meier). Displaced Old English burgealdor (“a ruler of a city, mayor, citizen”), burhġerēfa (“boroughreeve”), and portġerēfa (“portreeve”).

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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.