eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for chief

5 headwords match “chief”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; heafodmægen ranks first.

  1. 1

    heafodmægen

    score 15

    noun, neuter · strong a-stem · 6 inflected forms

    chief — chief virtue

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular hēafodmæġen
    genitive singular hēafodmæġnes
    dative singular hēafodmæġne
    accusative singular hēafodmæġen
    nominative plural hēafodmæġnu
    genitive plural hēafodmæġna
  2. 2

    ealdorapostol

    score 13

    adjective · strong a-stem · 3 inflected forms

    chief — chief apostle (St. Peter)

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular ealdorapostol
    genitive singular ealdorapostoles
    dative singular ealdorapostole
    accusative singular ealdorapostol
  3. 3

    hofding

    score 12

    noun, masculine

    chief — chief, leader

    • opens the headword's definition
  4. 4

    leod

    score 11

    noun, masculine · strong i-stem · 6 inflected forms

    chief — man, chief, leader

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular lēod
    genitive singular lēodes
    dative singular lēode
    accusative singular lēod
    nominative plural lēodas
    genitive plural lēoda
  5. 5

    guþfruma

    score 11

    noun, neuter · weak · 4 inflected forms

    chief — a warlike chief

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular gūþfruma
    genitive singular gūþfruman
    dative singular gūþfruman
    accusative singular gūþfruman
    nominative plural gūþfruman
    genitive plural gūþfrumena

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “chief” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “chief”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0