designated survivor

noun

A member of the cabinet who stays at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location when the president and all those in the line of succession are gathered at a single location, so as to provide a successor should a catastrophic event occur where the others die or are incapacitated.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

noundesignated survivor (plural designated survivors)

plural designated survivors

  1. USgovernmentA member of the cabinet who stays at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location when the president and all those in the line of succession are gathered at a single location, so as to provide a successor should a catastrophic event occur where the others die or are incapacitated.

Origin

designated + survivor

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

designated survivor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/designated%20survivor

MLA

“designated survivor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/designated%20survivor. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “designated survivor,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/designated%20survivor.

Source: designated survivor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.