chief of staff
"chief-of-staff" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chief of staff” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The senior officer of any of several services of the armed forces of several nations.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chief of staff |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chief of staff” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
chief of staff is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for chief of staff in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is chief of staff, spelled C-H-I-E-F- -O-F- -S-T-A-F-F.
Definition
- 1The senior officer of any of several services of the armed forces of several nations.
- 2The head of any of several political departments in several nations.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “chief of staff”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-I-E-F- -O-F- -S-T-A-F-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.