chief of staff

noun phrase

1

: the ranking officer of a staff in the armed forces serving as principal adviser to a commander

2

: the ranking officer of the army or air force and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Examples of chief of staff in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The security of its top commanders has been a recurring problem from Iran, with the head of the Revolutionary Guards Gen. Hossein Salami and Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, among those who killed in Friday’s strikes in Tehran. —Christopher Bodeen, Chicago Tribune, 21 June 2025

President Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff has raised safety concerns over his new flagpoles. —Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 June 2025

But negotiations among Republicans could drag into the summer, even as the president’s White House chief of staff urged GOP senators at a private lunch to meet the July 4 deadline. —Kristina Karisch, The Hill, 19 June 2025

Khorram, also known as K.K., started working for Combs in 2013 and became his longtime chief of staff. —Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 16 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1862, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for chief of staff

• autograph
• biograph
• cenotaph
• chronograph
• epigraph
• epitaph
• hodograph
• holograph
• hydrograph
• lithograph
• micrograph
• monograph

Kids Definition

chief of staff

1

: the ranking officer of a staff in the armed forces who advises a commander

2

: the ranking officer of the army or air force