Jump to content

president

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: President, président, and præsident

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

[edit]

Etymology 1

[edit]

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'.

Noun

[edit]

president (plural presidents)

Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States of America
  1. The head of state of a republic, sometimes also the head of government as well, particularly (US politics) the head of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States of America.
    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[sic] 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. (business) A person presiding over a corporation, usually an executive overseeing daily operations under a chief executive officer but sometimes a separate position held by a CEO.
  4. A person presiding over a meeting.
    • 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. A person presiding over a dinner or similar informal conversation.
Alternative forms
[edit]
Synonyms
[edit]
Derived terms
[edit]
[edit]
Descendants
[edit]
Translations
[edit]

Adjective

[edit]

president (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) Occupying the first rank or chief place; having the highest authority; presiding.

Verb

[edit]

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.
    • 2026 January 11, Helen Lewis, “The YIMBY Hero Everyone Is Shouting At”, in The Atlantic‎[4]:
      Although in other ways you couldn’t imagine two more dissimilar men, [Scott Wiener's] ferociously active spirit resembles the Bolshevik antsiness of Donald Trump. The current president is attractive to some voters who might not agree with his values, or his language, or even his policies, but who like that the president is, well, presidenting. Last year, Trump bulldozed the East Wing of the White House, one of the most recognizable historic sites in the United States. [In contrast,] In Democratic cities, people demand 38 meetings and three dozen environmental assessments before tearing down a crack den to build a nursery for sad orphans.

Etymology 2

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

president (plural presidents)

  1. Obsolete form of precedent.

References

[edit]

Albanian

[edit]

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

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

  1. president

Declension

[edit]
Declension of president
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative president presidenti presidentë presidentët
accusative presidentin
dative presidenti presidentit presidentëve presidentëve
ablative presidentësh
[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
  • “president”, in FMGJSH: Fjalor i madh i gjuhës shqipe (in Albanian), 2026
  • Newmark, Leonard (1999), “president”, in Oxford Albanian-English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Catalan

[edit]
Catalan Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ca

Etymology

[edit]

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

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

president m (plural presidents)

  1. president

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]

Descendants

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

Czech

[edit]
Czech Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia cs

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

president m anim

  1. alternative spelling of prezident

Declension

[edit]
Declension of president (hard masculine animate)
singular plural
nominative president presidenti
genitive presidenta presidentů
dative presidentovi, presidentu presidentům
accusative presidenta presidenty
vocative presidente presidenti
locative presidentovi, presidentu presidentech
instrumental presidentem presidenty

Dutch

[edit]
Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • IPA(key): /preː.ziˈdɛnt/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: pre‧si‧dent
  • Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

[edit]

president m (plural presidenten, diminutive presidentje n, feminine presidente)

  1. president

Derived terms

[edit]

Descendants

[edit]

Ladin

[edit]

Alternative forms

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

president m (plural presidenc)

  1. president

Middle French

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

president m (plural presidens)

  1. president (leader of an organization)

Norwegian Bokmål

[edit]
Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nb

Etymology

[edit]

From Latin praesidens.

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • Hyphenation: pre‧si‧dent

Noun

[edit]

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

  1. a president

Derived terms

[edit]

References

[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk

[edit]
Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology

[edit]

From Latin praesidens.

Noun

[edit]

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

  1. a president

References

[edit]

Occitan

[edit]

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

president m (plural presidents)

  1. president

Spanish

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

    Borrowed from Catalan president. Doublet of presidente.

    Pronunciation

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

    Noun

    [edit]

    president m (plural presidents)

    1. president of Catalonia

    Swedish

    [edit]
    Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia sv

    Alternative forms

    [edit]

    Pronunciation

    [edit]
    This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

    Noun

    [edit]

    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

    Declension

    [edit]
    Declension of president
    nominative genitive
    singular indefinite president presidents
    definite presidenten presidentens
    plural indefinite presidenter presidenters
    definite presidenterna presidenternas
    [edit]

    References

    [edit]
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=president&oldid=91589346"