president

• President (honorific)
• praesident, præsident (archaic)

From Old French president, from Latin praesidēns (“presiding over; president, leader”) (accusative: praesidentem). The Latin word is the substantivized present active participle of the verb praesideō (“preside over”). The verb is composed from prae (“before”) and sedeō (“sit”). The original meaning of the verb is 'to sit before' in the sense of presiding at a meeting. A secondary meaning of the verb is 'to command, to govern'. So praesidēns means 'the presiding one on a meeting' or 'governor, commander'.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛzɪdənt/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: pre‧si‧dent
• Rhymes: -ɛzɪdənt

president (plural presidents)

1. The head of state of a republic.

   The vast majority of presidents have been male.

   • 1965, Harry S. Truman, 0:20 from the start, in MP2002-401 Former President Truman Discusses "The Buck Stops Here"‎^[1], Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:

     Well, nobody else can make a decision but me because I was the President and the final decision comes to the President, you know. I used to have a sign on my desk that said, "The Buck Stops Here." The buck stops at the president's desk when he's president of the United States, and he either makes the decisions or he lets them go by default, and you can't afford to do that when you're president.

   • 2007, Benjamin Camins, Hillary Is the Best Choice, Page 144

     […] to change the pattern of the last 220 years of only voting for a white male president, and elect a woman president […]

   • 2025 February 12, Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak, “After Putin call, Trump says negotiations to end Ukraine war will start ‘immediately’”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     The call, which is the first known conversation between the presidents since Trump assumed office last month, came as as Trump makes clear to his advisers he wants to bring the Ukraine conflict to a swift end. […] The last US president to visit Russia was Barack Obama in 2013, when he attended a G20 summit.

2. In presidential republics, the head of government and head of state.
3. Primary leader of a corporation. Not to be confused with CEO, which is a related but separate position that is sometimes held by a different person.
4. A person presiding over a meeting; a chair, presiding officer, presider.
   • 1803, Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution‎^[3]:

     The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;
     The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, […]

5. Obsolete form of precedent.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii:

     The thirſt of raigne and ſweetnes of a crowne,
     That cauſd the eldeſt ſonne of heauenly Ops,
     To thruſt his doting father from his chaire,
     And place himſelfe in the Emperiall heauen,
     Moou’d me to menage armes againſt thy ſtate.
     What better preſident than mightie Ioue?

• (American head of state): POTUS
• (head of a college or university): provost (UK)
• (head of various specific bodies): prepositus
• (informal, jocular): prexy, prez

president (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Occupying the first rank or chief place; having the highest authority; presiding.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:

     His angels president / In every province.

president (third-person singular simple present presidents, present participle presidenting, simple past and past participle presidented)

1. To act as president; to do presidential duties.

• “president”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “president”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• IPA^(key): /prɛsidˈɛnt/

presidént m (plural presidentë, definite presidenti, definite plural presidentët)

1. president

• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[4], 1980
• “president”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006

Learned borrowing from Latin praesidēns, prasedientem (“presiding over; president, leader”).

• IPA^(key): (Central) [pɾə.ziˈðen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [pɾə.ziˈðent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [pɾe.ziˈðent]

• Audio:

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president m (plural presidents)

1. president

• vicepresident

• presidència
• presidencial
• presidir

• → Spanish: president

• “president”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “president”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “president” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “president” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): [ˈprɛsɪdɛnt]

president m anim

1. alternative spelling of prezident

• IPA^(key): /preː.ziˈdɛnt/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: pre‧si‧dent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

president m (plural presidenten, diminutive presidentje n)

1. president

• vicepresident

• Afrikaans: president
• → Caribbean Javanese: présidhèn
• → Indonesian: presiden
• → Papiamentu: presidènt

• presidënt

president m (plural presidenc)

1. president

president m (plural presidens)

1. president (leader of an organization)

From Latin praesidens.

• Hyphenation: pre‧si‧dent

president m (definite singular presidenten, indefinite plural presidenter, definite plural presidentene)

1. a president

• presidentvalg

• “president” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin praesidens.

president m (definite singular presidenten, indefinite plural presidentar, definite plural presidentane)

1. a president

• “president” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• Audio:

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president m (plural presidents)

1. president

Borrowed from Catalan president. Doublet of presidente.

• IPA^(key): /pɾesiˈden(d)/ [pɾe.siˈð̞ẽn(ð̞)]
• Rhymes: -en(d)
• Syllabification: pre‧si‧dent

president m (plural presidents)

1. president of Catalonia

• præsident (obsolete typography)

• Audio:

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president c

1. a chairman, presiding member of an assembly, e.g. a court of law
2. a president, head of state in a republic

• president in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)