Chief
Chief adjective - Coming before all others in importance.
Usage example: our chief priority this year will be cutting the budget
Main is a synonym for chief in characteristic topic. In some cases you can use "Main" instead the word "Chief" as an adjective or a noun, when it comes to topics like property, position, original, principal. popular alternative
Nearby Word: chiefly
Main
Main adjective - Coming before all others in importance.
Usage example: this is the main point of the study—everything else is secondary
Chief is a synonym for main in principal topic. You can use "Chief" instead the word "Main" as an adjective or a noun, if it concerns topics such as characteristic, position, original, important. popular alternative
Mutual synonyms
How words are described
Both words in one sentence
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In a nutshell, the Dragon-in-Chief is the main villainous driving force behind the plot, even if he or she did not initiate it, to the point that the Big Bad is pushed aside or even endangered by them, and rendered less important by comparison.
Source: Dragon-in-Chief - MARDEK: While regular bosses use the standard piano boss battle theme, major antagonists have specific Boss battle themes when fighting them; fighting Muriance the bandit chief changes his main theme into Muriance Battle, the World's Saviours get their theme changed into Saviours Battle, etc.
Source: Boss Remix - One of the main characters in the Atari Force mini-comics series (produced by DC Comics) is the Chinese-Irish security chief, Li San O'Rourke.
Source: Multi-Ethnic Name
Cite this Source
Main and Chief. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 14, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/chief/main
Chief & Main. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/chief/main>.
Main or Chief. 2016. Accessed August 14, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/chief/main.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "chief" and "main" have occurred on timeline