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Joint Chiefs

Joint Chiefs

133 4.1
Group of senior military leaders who advise the President of the United States on military matters
  • proper noun
  • US
translation icon : Junta de Jefes del Estado Mayor
  • The president met with the Joint Chiefs to discuss the country's defense strategy.
  • Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • U.S. Joint Chiefs
  • Joint Chiefs chairman

And the Joint Chiefs wanted nothing to do with that.

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Examples

  • General Miley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifying before Congress last year, talks about white rage again.

  • I got called into a meeting with the Joint Chiefs, and I was a little nervous.

  • And the Joint Chiefs wanted nothing to do with that.

  • That way the Joint Chiefs will actually hear it.

  • I have to talk to the Joint Chiefs of Staff!

  • You talked to the Joint Chiefs, what do they recommend?

  • The President and his chief advisors are there along with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • The Joint Chiefs are ready, Mr. Undersecretary.

  • Presidential news secretary John Fenner refused comment on a report that an emergency meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is in session.

  • And the Joint Chiefs of Staff finalized their plans for an all out invasion of Cuba.

Synonyms

Joint Chiefs of Staff
vsJoint Chiefs
  • US
58 4.2

A group of top military leaders who advise the President of the United States

is the formal name for that same advisory group

Surface Forms

Morphology

joint + chief

The phrase literally combines 'joint' (together/involving multiple parties) and 'chiefs' (leaders), so a learner who knows the words would infer a group of leaders acting together. However, its specific institutional meaning — the formal body of senior military leaders who advise the President — is a named, domain-specific referent that cannot be fully derived from the constituents alone, so prior exposure or contextual knowledge is needed.

Etymology

Joint Chiefs comes from the idea of the top military leaders meeting together: joint means 'together' and chiefs means 'leaders'. That's why it now refers to the group of senior military officers who advise the President.