chairman
/ˈtʃɛːmən
/noun (plural chairmen)
1A person chosen to preside over a meeting: the chairman of the conference...
- The chairman closed the meeting and thanked everyone for their attendance.
- The chairman ended the meeting by wishing all the members a happy New Year.
- The chairman of the Kildwick Parish Meeting was unavailable for comment.
1.1The permanent or long-term president of a committee, company, or other organization: he was chairman of the finance committee he received an offer to become the company’s chairman and chief executive [with modifier]: the party chairman...
- Saari is also the chairman of the committee organizing the Saturday gathering.
- In this rogues' gallery are former council leaders, former mayors, chairmen of powerful committees and a former chief whip.
- Forstmann, who has been on the board, will become the chairman of the executive committee.
Synonyms
chair, chairperson, president, convener;
spokesperson, spokesman, spokeswoman, leader, MC, master/mistress of ceremonies;
British shop steward, father/mother of the chapel
1.2 (Chairman) (Since 1949) the leading figure in the Chinese Communist Party.Chairman Lien has to act tough and clear out those who are trying to split the party.
2 historical A sedan-bearer.
Usage
The word chairman found itself accused of sexism in the 1970s, with critics opposed to the way it combined the notion of power with a grammatical gender bias. Two neutral alternatives were proposed, chair (which was actually recorded in this sense in the 17th century) and the neologism chairperson. Both terms faced initial resistance, and although they have now become accepted in standard English, the Oxford English Corpus shows that they are still far less common than chairman.