chief

«chief» in Mova's school dictionary: The leader or head of a group, such as a tribe… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a chief, chiefs); adjective (chief)

meaning for a pupil

1) The leader or head of a group, such as a tribe, organisation or police force (the fire chief). tree →

2) Most important; main (the chief reason). tree →

3) Highest in rank (chief executive, chief inspector). tree →

4) (informal) A friendly word for a man, like «mate» or «boss» (Alright, chief?). tree →

sense in the lessons

In history and stories: the chief of a tribe or clan. In everyday life: police chief, chief of staff, head chef. In formal writing: «the chief cause of the problem». Phrases: commander-in-chief, editor-in-chief, chief among.

examples

• The chief of the village welcomed us. tree →
• The fire chief told everyone to leave the building. tree →
• Our chief worry is the weather. tree →
• She is the chief executive of a big company. tree →
• Rain was the chief reason we stayed inside. tree →
• Cheers, chief! (informal) tree →
• “Stay with us, Chief,” Caelte begged. tree →

note

Spelling: i before e (chief). Plural: chiefs (not chieves). As an adjective it comes before the noun: the chief problem. Adverb: chiefly (mainly).

In the corpora

• Through the door they hear the Chief Weasel making a speech about «our kind host, Mr.
• The Chief Weasel's speech: «I should like to say one word about our kind host, Mr.
• He nods hard, but he is sure it means the great Chief is surrounded by enemies with spears.
• The ladies fill the poor man's hair with mud, bang the tribal drums and call every chief of the Tribe.
• The whole Tribe has come, chiefs and all, armed to the teeth, shouting and frightening every fish for twenty miles.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «chief» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.