1
: the position or office of a chief : leadership
Mandla Mandela's rise was a great source of pride for Mr. Mandela, who wrote of the pain of his father losing his chiefdom after a dispute with colonial authorities.—
Lydia Polgreen
Lydia PolgreenHiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), who started off as a bumbling weakling in need of draconic pedagogy, has now ascended to the chiefdom of the wacky Viking village of Berk.—Chris McCoy
Chris McCoy2
: a region or a people ruled by a chief
The Timucua lived along the northern Atlantic coast of the Florida peninsula …. Although they were somewhat unified linguistically, speaking a dozen or so dialects of one language family, they were politically divided into as many as fifty distinct chiefdoms.—Christopher M. Stojanowski
Christopher M. StojanowskiHowever, some tribes and even chiefdoms consist of herders who move seasonally.—Jared Diamond
Jared DiamondExamples of chiefdom in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Evoking the concept of kingdoms while exploring diverse expressions of power, the pieces span empires, kingdoms, city-states, chiefdoms, and figures from divine rulers to heroic leaders.
—Essence, 3 June 2025
For now, at least, the Muisca chiefdom of Guatavita, once a prestigious ceremonial pilgrimage site known for the skill of its goldsmiths, is the most likely origin of the myth.
—Shoshi Parks, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Sep. 2024
The original inhabitants, whose descendants now make up a small minority in Taiwan, were Austronesian tribes who ruled themselves in a number of chiefdoms.
—Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 24 June 2024
First came the Spanish, who encountered a dense web of chiefdoms and a century of resistance.
—Scott W. Stern, The New Republic, 26 June 2023
Under the Piscataway chiefdom, other tribes — including the Yaocomico, Mattawoman, Pamunkey, Mattaponi and Nanjemoy — were interconnected with their own systems of justice, governing and defending themselves.
—Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, 7 Nov. 2022
Graeber and Wengrow conclude that the simplistic models of social evolution that draw a straight line from forager bands to tribes and chiefdoms to ever-larger states are too crude to be of much value.
—Walter Scheidel, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022
Consider the 16th-century chiefdoms in the Cauca Valley of Colombia, which were constantly at war.
—Catherine M. Cameron, Scientific American, 1 Dec. 2017
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Essence, 3 June 2025
For now, at least, the Muisca chiefdom of Guatavita, once a prestigious ceremonial pilgrimage site known for the skill of its goldsmiths, is the most likely origin of the myth.
—Shoshi Parks, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Sep. 2024
The original inhabitants, whose descendants now make up a small minority in Taiwan, were Austronesian tribes who ruled themselves in a number of chiefdoms.
—Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 24 June 2024
First came the Spanish, who encountered a dense web of chiefdoms and a century of resistance.
—Scott W. Stern, The New Republic, 26 June 2023
Under the Piscataway chiefdom, other tribes — including the Yaocomico, Mattawoman, Pamunkey, Mattaponi and Nanjemoy — were interconnected with their own systems of justice, governing and defending themselves.
—Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, 7 Nov. 2022
Graeber and Wengrow conclude that the simplistic models of social evolution that draw a straight line from forager bands to tribes and chiefdoms to ever-larger states are too crude to be of much value.
—Walter Scheidel, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022
Consider the 16th-century chiefdoms in the Cauca Valley of Colombia, which were constantly at war.
—Catherine M. Cameron, Scientific American, 1 Dec. 2017
Cite this Entry
“Chiefdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chiefdom. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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