# chancellor

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈtʃɑːnsələ/ · frequency rank #5,767

## Definitions
1. A senior secretary or official with administrative or legal duties, sometimes in charge of some area of government such as finance or justice.
2. A senior secretary or official with administrative or legal duties, sometimes in charge of some area of government such as finance or justice.
3. The head of the government in some German-speaking countries.
4. A senior record keeper of a cathedral; a senior legal officer for a bishop or diocese in charge of hearing cases involving ecclesiastical law.
5. The head of a university, sometimes purely ceremonial.
6. The foreman of a jury.
7. The chief judge of a court of chancery (that is, one exercising equity jurisdiction).
8. A fairy chess piece which combines the moves of the rook and the knight.

## Etymology
From Anglo-Norman or Middle English chaunceler, chanceler, canceler (“chief administrative or executive officer of a ruler; chancellor, secretary; private secretary, scribe; Lord Chancellor of England; officer of the ruler's exchequer; a high administrative or executive officer (for example, a deputy or representative of a bishop; the head of a university)”), from Old French cancelier, chancelier (“chancellor”), from Late Latin cancellārius (“secretary; doorkeeper, porter; usher of a court of law stationed at the bars separating the public from the judges”), from Latin cancellī (plural of cancellus (“grate; bars, barrier; railings”), diminutive of cancer (“grid; barrier”), from Proto-Italic *karkros (“enclosure”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn”)) + -ārius (suffix forming nouns denoting an agent of use).
The word was present as Late Old English canceler, cancheler, from Norman cancheler, but was displaced in the 13th century by the Old French and Anglo-Norman forms mentioned above.

## Common misspellings (14)
`cahncellor`, `cchancellor`, `chacnellor`, `chanccellor`, `chancellorr`, `chancellro`, `chancelolr`, `chancelor`, `chanclelor`, `chanecllor`, `channcellor`, `chhancellor`, `chnacellor`, `hcancellor`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/chancellor