Meaning & use
chaperon
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
An adult who goes along with a young person or a group to supervise them and keep them safe at an event or trip.
Grammar: Countable: one chaperon, two chaperons.
Patterns
- a chaperon for someone
- a chaperon on something
Two parents volunteered as chaperons for the school dance.
The museum trip needs one chaperon for every ten students.
She joined the trip as a chaperon and kept a close eye on the younger children.
verbtransitive
To accompany and supervise someone, especially a young person, at an event or on a journey.
Grammar: Takes an object: she chaperoned the students.
Patterns
- chaperon someone to something
My aunt agreed to chaperon the choir on its tour.
Teachers chaperon the field trips every spring.
He was asked to chaperon his younger cousins at the fair.
Word forms
| plural | chaperons |
|---|---|
| third person singular | chaperons |
| past tense | chaperoned |
| -ing form | chaperoning |
Common combinations
- act as a chaperon
- He acted as a chaperon on the school ski trip.
- volunteer as a chaperon
- Several parents volunteered as chaperons for the dance.
- chaperon a trip
- Two teachers will chaperon the trip to Paris.
- chaperon a dance
- Parents often chaperon a dance at the school.
- a parent chaperon
- A parent chaperon rode on every bus.
Synonyms and how they differ
- escort
- An escort accompanies someone to protect or guide them, but does not necessarily supervise their behavior as a chaperon does.
- supervisor
- A supervisor oversees work or activity in general, while a chaperon watches over people at a social event.
- guardian
- A guardian has legal and long-term responsibility, whereas a chaperon is only responsible for one occasion.
Word family
- chaperone noun
- the more common spelling of the same word
- chaperoned adjective
- accompanied and supervised by an adult
- chaperoning noun
- the act of acting as a chaperon
Commonly confused: chaperon or chaperone?
chaperon vs chaperone
Chaperone is the same word with the more usual spelling; do not treat it as a different meaning.
Practice
The school asked several parents to ___ the students on the field trip.
Choose one answer.
After to the base verb is needed, so chaperon fits. Escort is a verb too but lacks the sense of supervising a group, and the other options are the wrong forms.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “chaperon”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.