chief of staff
287
5.2
- noun
- /tʃif əv stæf/
- By 2001, every secretary had a chief of staff, and most had deputy chiefs of staff.
- army chief of staff
- deputy chief of staff
- General chief of staff
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Watch on YouTubeGroener is the chief of staff, general staff at this point.
- Groener is the chief of staff, general staff at this point.
- General Meyer, I believe it was, was the chief of staff or maybe the chairman.
- And this guy comes roaring in and he was from the assistant chief of staff of intelligence.
- And Constantine Prezan, against his will, became the new chief of staff.
- General Birkenau, the highest Air Force guy in in there except for, you know, the chief of staff.
- And I walked past General Nordy Schwartz, who used to be the chief of staff of the United States Air Force, the head of the Air Force.
- And to my one woman Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lauren Travleone, the hardest working mother I know.
Examples
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The chief of staff is responsible for coordinating the military operations of the army.
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The new chief of staff implemented changes to improve efficiency in the military branch.
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The White House chief of staff is on his way up.
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By 1997, only the chief of staff was an active officer.
Academic text (2001) -
If it's significant... What about a senator's chief of staff?
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I'm the Senator's chief of staff.
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The chief of staff has authorized full cooperation.
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I'm Congressman Baxter's chief of staff.
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So Susie Wilde is the chief of staff for Donald Trump, and she ran his campaign.
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The US is headed for the most predictable economic crisis in history, as Bill Clinton's former White House chief of staff once put it.
Synonyms
∞
1.9
A person who leads a group or community
∞
3.6
A person in charge of a group who gives orders and leads them
76
4.1
An officer in charge of a group of soldiers
34
8.2
An officer in charge of a military unit or a school for soldiers
14
8.0
A very senior military officer who commands a whole branch of the armed forces
3
9.5
A senior army officer who manages records and staff and helps the commander
Antonyms
How Senior
8
3.4
287
5.2
- Specialized
3
6.1
1
3.8
131
2.4
1
4.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'chief' (leader) + 'of' (possessive) + 'staff' (employees) combine in a straightforward compositional way so a B1 learner who knows the words can infer it means the head or leader of the staff. Domain-specific nuances (e.g., in a hospital it refers to the senior physician) require context, but the core meaning 'leader/head of staff' is transparently derivable and cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
Chief of staff may come from the simple image of a chief, a leader, standing with his staff, the group of officers who help him. So, it now means the top officer 'in charge of' a branch of the armed forces.