chief petty officer

Meaning

1. 1nouncountablemilitary

   A senior enlisted rank in a navy, higher than a petty officer, held by an experienced sailor who supervises other sailors and advises commissioned officers.

   Grammar: Countable, and capitalized before a name: Chief Petty Officer Reyes. The abbreviation is CPO.

   Patterns

   • chief petty officer of something
   • Chief Petty Officer + surname

   The chief petty officer trained the new recruits on damage control.

   After twelve years of service, he was promoted to chief petty officer.

   Chief Petty Officer Adams reported to the captain at dawn.

Word forms

Common combinations

promoted to chief petty officer

He was promoted to chief petty officer after fifteen years.

retired chief petty officer

A retired chief petty officer spoke at the ceremony.

senior chief petty officer

The senior chief petty officer ranks above a chief petty officer.

Chief Petty Officer's mess

The chief petty officer's mess is where senior enlisted sailors eat and meet.

serve as chief petty officer

She served as chief petty officer on a destroyer.

Synonyms and how they differ

CPO

CPO is the abbreviation and is used in speech and writing once the full title is clear.

chief

Chief is the informal spoken form sailors use to address the rank, while chief petty officer is the full official title.

non-commissioned officer

Non-commissioned officer is a broad category covering many ranks across all services, whereas chief petty officer is one specific naval rank.

Word family

petty officer noun

A lower naval rank beneath chief petty officer

officer noun

A person in a position of authority in the armed forces

warrant officer noun

A rank above chief petty officer in some navies

Commonly confused: chief petty officer or chief of naval operations?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “chief petty officer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words