STATESMAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does statesman mean? 

• STATESMAN (noun)
  The noun STATESMAN has 1 sense:

1. a man who is a respected leader in national or international affairs

  Familiarity information: STATESMAN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STATESMAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A man who is a respected leader in national or international affairs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

national leader; solon; statesman

Hypernyms ("statesman" is a kind of...):

pol; political leader; politician; politico (a person active in party politics)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "statesman"):

elder statesman (an elderly statesman whose advice is sought be government leaders)

Founding Father (a member of the Constitutional Convention that drafted the United States Constitution in 1787)

stateswoman (a woman statesman)

Instance hyponyms:

Acheson; Dean Acheson; Dean Gooderham Acheson (United States statesman who promoted the Marshall Plan and helped establish NATO (1893-1971))

Adenauer; Konrad Adenauer (German statesman; chancellor of West Germany (1876-1967))

Agrippa; Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (Roman general who commanded the fleet that defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium (63-12 BC))

Alcibiades (ancient Athenian statesman and general in the Peloponnesian War (circa 450-404 BC))

Arafat; Yasser Arafat (Palestinian statesman who was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (1929-2004))

Ataturk; Kemal Ataturk; Kemal Pasha; Mustafa Kemal (Turkish statesman who abolished the caliphate and founded Turkey as a modern secular state (1881-1938))

1st Earl Attlee; Attlee; Clement Attlee; Clement Richard Attlee (British statesman and leader of the Labour Party who instituted the welfare state in Britain (1883-1967))

Augustus; Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus; Gaius Octavianus; Octavian (Roman statesman who established the Roman Empire and became emperor in 27 BC; defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC at Actium (63 BC - AD 14))

1st Baron Verulam; Bacon; Baron Verulam; Francis Bacon; Sir Francis Bacon; Viscount St. Albans (English statesman and philosopher; precursor of British empiricism; advocated inductive reasoning (1561-1626))

1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley; Baldwin; Stanley Baldwin (English statesman; member of the Conservative Party (1867-1947))

1st Earl of Balfour; Arthur James Balfour; Balfour (English statesman; member of the Conservative Party (1848-1930))

Baruch; Bernard Baruch; Bernard Mannes Baruch (economic advisor to United States Presidents (1870-1965))

Begin; Menachem Begin (Israeli statesman (born in Russia) who (as prime minister of Israel) negotiated a peace treaty with Anwar Sadat (then the president of Egypt) (1913-1992))

Ben Gurion; David Ben Gurion; David Grun (Israeli statesman (born in Poland) and active Zionist who organized resistance against the British after World War II; prime minister of Israel (1886-1973))

Bevin; Ernest Bevin (British labor leader and statesman who played an important role in diplomacy after World War II (1884-1951))

Bismarck; Iron Chancellor; Otto von Bismarck; Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck; Prince Otto von Bismarck; von Bismarck (German statesman under whose leadership Germany was united (1815-1898))

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair; Blair; Tony Blair (British statesman who became prime minister in 1997 (born in 1953))

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius; Boethius (a Roman who was an early Christian philosopher and statesman who was executed for treason; Boethius had a decisive influence on medieval logic (circa 480-524))

Bolivar; El Libertador; Simon Bolivar (Venezuelan statesman who led the revolt of South American colonies against Spanish rule; founded Bolivia in 1825 (1783-1830))

Brandt; Willy Brandt (German statesman who as chancellor of West Germany worked to reduce tensions with eastern Europe (1913-1992))

Brezhnev; Leonid Brezhnev; Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (Soviet statesman who became president of the Soviet Union (1906-1982))

Brutus; Marcus Junius Brutus (statesman of ancient Rome who (with Cassius) led a conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar (85-42 BC))

Burke; Edmund Burke (British statesman famous for his oratory; pleaded the cause of the American colonists in British Parliament and defended the parliamentary system (1729-1797))

Caesar; Gaius Julius Caesar; Julius Caesar (conqueror of Gaul and master of Italy (100-44 BC))

Cassius; Cassius Longinus; Gaius Cassius Longinus (prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius Caesar (died in 42 BC))

Arthur Neville Chamberlain; Chamberlain; Neville Chamberlain (British statesman who as Prime Minister pursued a policy of appeasement toward fascist Germany (1869-1940))

Chateaubriand; Francois Rene Chateaubriand; Vicomte de Chateaubriand (French statesman and writer; considered a precursor of the romantic movement in France (1768-1848))

Chesterfield; Fourth Earl of Chesterfield; Philip Dormer Stanhope (suave and witty English statesman remembered mostly for letters to his son (1694-1773))

Chiang Chung-cheng; Chiang Kai-shek (Chinese military and political figure; in the Chinese civil war that followed World War II he was defeated by the Chinese communists and in 1949 was forced to withdraw to Taiwan where he served as president of Nationalist China until his death (1897-1975))

Churchill; Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill; Winston Churchill; Winston S. Churchill (British statesman and leader during World War II; received Nobel prize for literature in 1953 (1874-1965))

Cicero; Marcus Tullius Cicero; Tully (a Roman statesman and orator remembered for his mastery of Latin prose (106-43 BC))

Cincinnatus; Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (Roman statesman regarded as a model of simple virtue; he twice was called to assume dictatorship of Rome and each time retired to his farm (519-438 BC))

Clemenceau; Georges Clemenceau; Georges Eugene Benjamin Clemenceau (French statesman who played a key role in negotiating the Treaty of Versailles (1841-1929))

Baron Clive; Baron Clive of Plassey; Clive; Robert Clive (British general and statesman whose victory at Plassey in 1757 strengthened British control of India (1725-1774))

Cosimo de Medici; Cosimo the Elder (Italian financier and statesman and friend of the papal court (1389-1464))

Cromwell; Ironsides; Oliver Cromwell (English general and statesman who led the parliamentary army in the English Civil War (1599-1658))

Davis; Jefferson Davis (American statesman; president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1808-1889))

Dayan; Moshe Dayan (Israeli general and statesman (1915-1981))

Charles Andre Joseph Marie de Gaulle; Charles de Gaulle; de Gaulle; General Charles de Gaulle; General de Gaulle (French general and statesman who became very popular during World War II as the leader of the Free French forces in exile (1890-1970))

Demosthenes (Athenian statesman and orator (circa 385-322 BC))

Deng Xiaoping; Teng Hsiao-ping; Teng Hsiaoping (Chinese communist statesman (1904-1997))

de Valera; Eamon de Valera (Irish statesman (born in the United States); as president of the Irish Free State he was responsible for the new constitution of 1937 that created the state of Eire (1882-1975))

Benjamin Disraeli; Disraeli; First Earl of Beaconsfield (British statesman who as Prime Minister bought controlling interest in the Suez Canal and made Queen Victoria the empress of India (1804-1881))

Flaminius; Gaius Flaminius (Roman statesman and general who built the Flaminian Way; died when he was defeated by Hannibal (died 217 BC))

Charles James Fox; Fox (English statesman who supported American independence and the French Revolution (1749-1806))

Gandhi; Indira Gandhi; Indira Nehru Gandhi; Mrs. Gandhi (daughter of Nehru who served as prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 (1917-1984))

Gladstone; William Ewart Gladstone; William Gladstone (liberal British statesman who served as prime minister four times (1809-1898))

Gorbachev; Mikhail Gorbachev; Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Soviet statesman whose foreign policy brought an end to the Cold War and whose domestic policy introduced major reforms (born in 1931))

Charles Grey; Grey; Second Earl Grey (Englishman who as Prime Minister implemented social reforms including the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire (1764-1845))

First Viscount Haldane of Cloan; Haldane; Richard Burdon Haldane; Richard Haldane (Scottish statesman and brother of Elizabeth and John Haldane (1856-1928))

Alexander Hamilton; Hamilton (United States statesman and leader of the Federalists; as the first Secretary of the Treasury he establish a federal bank; was mortally wounded in a duel with Aaron Burr (1755-1804))

Havel; Vaclav Havel (Czech dramatist and statesman whose plays opposed totalitarianism and who served as president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992 and president of the Czech Republic since 1993 (born in 1936))

Hindenburg; Paul Ludwig von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg; Paul von Hindenburg (German field marshal and statesman; as president of the Weimar Republic he reluctantly appointed Hitler as chancellor in 1933 (1847-1934))

Ho Chi Minh; Nguyen Tat Thanh (Vietnamese communist statesman who fought the Japanese in World War II and the French until 1954 and South Vietnam until 1975 (1890-1969))

Jinnah; Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Indian statesman who was the founder of Pakistan as a Muslim state (1876-1948))

Kalinin; Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin; Mikhail Kalinin (soviet statesman and head of state of the USSR (1875-1946))

Kaunda; Kenneth David Kaunda; Kenneth Kaunda (statesman who led Northern Rhodesia to full independence as Zambia in 1964 and served as Zambia's first president (1924-1999))

Jomo Kenyata; Kenyata (Kenyan statesman and the first president of independent Kenya (1893-1978))

Aleksandr Feodorovich Kerensky; Kerensky (Russian revolutionary who was head of state after Nicholas II abdicated but was overthrown by the Bolsheviks (1881-1970))

Khama; Sir Seretse Khama (Botswanan statesman who was the first president of Botswana (1921-1980))

Khrushchev; Nikita Khrushchev; Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Soviet statesman and premier who denounced Stalin (1894-1971))

Fumimaro Konoe; Fumimaro Konoye; Konoe; Konoye; Prince Fumimaro Konoe; Prince Fumimaro Konoye (Japanese statesman who set Japan's expansionist policies and formed an alliance with Germany and Italy (1891-1945))

Kruger; Oom Paul Kruger; Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (Boer statesman (1825-1904))

Lorenzo de'Medici; Lorenzo the Magnificent (Italian statesman and scholar who supported many artists and humanists including Michelangelo and Leonardo and Botticelli (1449-1492))

Machiavelli; Niccolo Machiavelli (a statesman of Florence who advocated a strong central government (1469-1527))

John Major; John R. Major; John Roy Major; Major (British statesman who was prime minister from 1990 until 1997 (born in 1943))

Mandela; Nelson Mandela; Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (South African statesman who was released from prison to become the nation's first democratically elected president in 1994 (born in 1918))

George Catlett Marshall; George Marshall; Marshall (United States general and statesman who as Secretary of State organized the European Recovery Program (1880-1959))

Golda Meir; Meir (Israeli statesman (born in Russia) (1898-1978))

Klemens Metternich; Metternich; Prince Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar von Metternich (Austrian statesman (1773-1859))

Francois Maurice Marie Mitterrand; Francois Mitterrand; Mitterrand (French statesman and president of France from 1981 to 1985 (1916-1996))

Molotov; Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (Soviet statesman (1890-1986))

More; Sir Thomas More; Thomas More (English statesman who opposed Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and was imprisoned and beheaded; recalled for his concept of Utopia, the ideal state)

Gouverneur Morris; Morris (United States statesman who led the committee that produced the final draft of the United States Constitution (1752-1816))

Hosni Mubarak; Mubarak (Egyptian statesman who became president in 1981 after Sadat was assassinated (born in 1929))

Fridtjof Nansen; Nansen (Norwegian explorer of the Arctic and director of the League of Nations relief program for refugees of World War I (1861-1930))

Gamal Abdel Nasser; Nasser (Egyptian statesman who nationalized the Suez Canal (1918-1970))

Jawaharlal Nehru; Nehru (Indian statesman and leader with Gandhi in the struggle for home rule; was the first prime minister of the Republic of India from 1947 to 1964 (1889-1964))

Frederick North; North; Second Earl of Guilford (British statesman under George III whose policies led to rebellion in the American colonies (1732-1792))

Daniel Ortega; Daniel Ortega Saavedra; Ortega (Nicaraguan statesman (born in 1945))

Ignace Jan Paderewski; Ignace Paderewski; Paderewski (Polish pianist who in 1919 served as the first Prime Minister of independent Poland (1860-1941))

Pericles (Athenian statesman whose leadership contributed to Athens' political and cultural supremacy in Greece; he ordered the construction of the Parthenon (died in 429 BC))

First Earl of Chatham; Pitt; Pitt the Elder; William Pitt (English statesman who brought the Seven Years' War to an end (1708-1778))

Pitt; Pitt the Younger; Second Earl of Chatham; William Pitt (English statesman and son of Pitt the Elder (1759-1806))

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus; Pompey; Pompey the Great (Roman general and statesman who quarrelled with Caesar and fled to Egypt where he was murdered (106-48 BC))

Colin luther Powell; Colin Powell; Powell (United States general who was the first African American to serve as chief of staff; later served as Secretary of State under President George W. Bush (born 1937))

Putin; Vladimir Putin; Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian statesman chosen as president of the Russian Federation in 2000; formerly director of the Federal Security Bureau (born in 1952))

Radhakrishnan; Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan; Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Indian philosopher and statesman who introduced Indian philosophy to the West (1888-1975))

Armand Jean du Plessis; Cardinal Richelieu; Duc de Richelieu; Richelieu (French prelate and statesman; principal minister to Louis XIII (1585-1642))

Charles Watson-Wentworth; Rockingham; Second Marquis of Rockingham (English statesman who served as prime minister and who opposed the war with the American colonies (1730-1782))

Anwar el-Sadat; Anwar Sadat; Sadat (Egyptian statesman who (as president of Egypt) negotiated a peace treaty with Menachem Begin (then prime minister of Israel) (1918-1981))

Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt; Helmut Schmidt; Schmidt (German statesman who served as chancellor of Germany (born in 1918))

Lucius Annaeus Seneca; Seneca (Roman statesman and philosopher who was an advisor to Nero; his nine extant tragedies are modeled on Greek tragedies (circa 4 BC - 65 AD))

Ian Douglas Smith; Ian Smith; Smith (Rhodesian statesman who declared independence of Zimbabwe from Great Britain (born in 1919))

Jan Christian Smuts; Smuts (South African statesman and soldier (1870-1950))

Suharto (Indonesian statesman who seized power from Sukarno in 1967 (born in 1921))

Achmad Sukarno; Sukarno (Indonesian statesman who obtained the independence of Indonesia from the Netherlands in 1949 and served as president until ousted by Suharto in a coup d'etat (1901-1970))

Duc de Sully; Maxmilien de Bethune; Sully (French statesman (1560-1641))

Sun Yat-sen; Sun Yixian (Chinese statesman who organized the Kuomintang and led the revolution that overthrew the Manchu dynasty in 1911 and 1912 (1866-1925))

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand; Talleyrand (French statesman (1754-1838))

Themistocles (Athenian statesman who persuaded Athens to build a navy and then led it to victory over the Persians (527-460 BC))

Josip Broz; Marshal Tito; Tito (Yugoslav statesman who led the resistance to German occupation during World War II and established a communist state after the war (1892-1980))

Getulio Dornelles Vargas; Vargas (Brazilian statesman who ruled Brazil as a virtual dictator (1883-1954))

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd; Hendrik Verwoerd; Verwoerd (South African statesman who instituted the policy of apartheid (1901-1966))

Kurt Waldheim; Waldheim (Austrian diplomat who was Secretary General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981; in 1986 he was elected president of Austria in spite of worldwide allegations that he had direct knowledge of Nazi atrocities during World War II (born in 1918))

Lech Walesa; Walesa (Polish labor leader and statesman (born in 1943))

First Earl of Orford; Robert Walpole; Sir Robert Walpole; Walpole (Englishman and Whig statesman who (under George I) was effectively the first British prime minister (1676-1745))

Earl of Warwick; Kingmaker; Richard Neville; Warwick (English statesman; during the War of the Roses he fought first for the house of York and secured the throne for Edward IV and then changed sides to fight for the house of Lancaster and secured the throne for Henry VI (1428-1471))

Chaim Azriel Weizmann; Chaim Weizmann; Weizmann (Israeli statesman who persuaded the United States to recognize the new state of Israel and became its first president (1874-1952))

Arthur Wellesley; Duke of Wellington; First Duke of Wellington; Iron Duke; Wellington (British general and statesman; he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo; subsequently served as Prime Minister (1769-1852))

William of Wykeham; Wykeham (English prelate and statesman; founded a college at Oxford and Winchester College in Winchester; served as chancellor of England and bishop of Winchester (1324-1404))

Derivation:

statesmanly (marked by the qualities of or befitting a statesman)

statesmanship (wisdom in the management of public affairs)

 Context examples 

“I agree with you,” said the younger statesman.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Soldier, statesman, and alchemist—which latter was the highest development of the science-knowledge of his time.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Not a statesman with the honourable record of Lord Holdhurst?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the one hand soldiers, sailors, and statesmen of the quality of Pitt, Nelson, and afterwards Wellington, had been forced to the front by the imminent menace of Buonaparte.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

God had an errand for me; to bear which afar, to deliver it well, skill and strength, courage and eloquence, the best qualifications of soldier, statesman, and orator, were all needed: for these all centre in the good missionary.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He advised great statesmen to examine into the diet of all suspected persons; their times of eating; upon which side they lay in bed; with which hand they wipe their posteriors; take a strict view of their excrements, and, from the colour, the odour, the taste, the consistence, the crudeness or maturity of digestion, form a judgment of their thoughts and designs; because men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent, as when they are at stool, which he found by frequent experiment; for, in such conjunctures, when he used, merely as a trial, to consider which was the best way of murdering the king, his ordure would have a tincture of green; but quite different, when he thought only of raising an insurrection, or burning the metropolis.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The two statesmen bowed and walked gravely from the room.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A shadow passed over the expressive face of the statesman.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There I saw statesmen and soldiers, noblemen and lawyers, farmers and squires, with roughs of the East End and yokels of the shires, all toiling along with the prospect of a night of discomfort before them, on the chance of seeing a fight which might, for all that they knew, be decided in a single round.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I saw he was of the material from which nature hews her heroes—Christian and Pagan—her lawgivers, her statesmen, her conquerors: a steadfast bulwark for great interests to rest upon; but, at the fireside, too often a cold cumbrous column, gloomy and out of place.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)