figurehead
figureheads
A figurehead is someone who appears to be in charge, but who really holds very little influence. In many countries today, kings and queens are merely figureheads.
A ceremonial president or king — one installed as a symbolic head of a country, while someone else holds the real power — is one type of figurehead. If a retiring businesswoman promotes her son to be the new CEO of her company, while putting a different person in charge of running the business, the son is just a figurehead. The word figurehead comes from its original meaning, the figures carved at the front of old sailing ships.
Vocabulary lists containing figurehead
This book explores the Black Panther Party's origins and the lasting impacts that the organization's community activism has had on America's ongoing fight for racial justice.
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