An irregular form fromchief orchieftain +‎-ess.

chieftess (pluralchieftesses)

1. Synonym ofchieftainess: afemalechieftain or thewife of achief.
   • "This heroine was ever after treated by her nation as their deliverer, and made achieftess in her own right, with the liberty to entail the same honour on her descendants ..."New travels among the Indians of North America, William Fisher, ed., p. 294; attributed to Rev. J. Hubbard.[1]
   • Loved by a MaoriChieftess (title of a 1913 film from New Zealand)

• "chieftess,n." inJames A. H. Murrayet al., editors (1884–1928), “Chieftess”, inA New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London:Clarendon Press,→OCLC.

• English lemmas
• English nouns
• English countable nouns
• English terms suffixed with -ess (female)
• English terms suffixed with -ess (wife)

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