President

How to spell president

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce president

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does president mean?

1. nounThe elected head of a republic, or the most senior officer of an organisation or institution.

President in a sentence

• The president signed the new trade agreement during the summit.

• The company appointed a new president to lead its board.

Where does president come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin praesidens, the present participle of the verb praesidere, which literally meant 'to sit before' or 'to sit in front of', built from prae 'before, in front' and sedere 'to sit'. The image behind it is of the person who sits at the head of an assembly, presiding over and protecting the gathering; from that came the sense of one who guards, directs, or governs. Latin praesidere also gave us the related word 'preside', and the same sedere root sits quietly inside 'session', 'reside', and 'sediment'. English took 'president' through Old French in the late 1300s, at first for a presiding officer or governor, and the political sense of the elected head of a republic grew firmly in the 1700s. Remembering the buried verb 'sit' (sid) helps fix the middle of the spelling, and keeping praesidere in mind separates 'president' from the look-alike 'precedent', which comes instead from a root meaning 'to go before'.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• sid (from Latin sedere, to sit)
• -ent (agent-noun suffix)