head honcho

1. 1.

   an important influential person

   “he thinks he's a big shot”

   “she's a big deal in local politics”

   “the Qaeda commander is a very big fish”

   Synonymsbig shotbig gunbig wheelbig cheesebig dealbig enchiladabig fish

   Broaderimportant person

   Narrowerknockersupremo

   colloquialism

Questions about head honcho

What does head honcho mean?

head honcho means "an important influential person".

What is another word for head honcho?

Close synonyms include big shot, big gun, big wheel, big cheese, big deal. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is head honcho a common word?

head honcho is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.