Meanings
goodwill ambassador1
plural goodwill ambassadors · alternative GA · alternative GWA · alternative Goodwill Ambassador
- A public figure who, as a volunteer, is an advocate for a good cause on behalf of a public organization.
Russian supermodel and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova became a United Nations goodwill ambassador on Wednesday, pledging to promote the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls and tackle stigmas surrounding their bodies.
2021 February 25, Edith M. Lederer, “Russian supermodel Vodianova is new UN goodwill ambassador”, in AP News
Goodwill Ambassador2
plural Goodwill Ambassadors
- Alternative letter-case form of goodwill ambassador (“as a legal title before a name”).
Origin
Origin 1927 when Calvin Coolidge, the United States president designated Col. Charles Lindbergh its Goodwill Ambassador during one of his most famous flights. As a compound word representing an honorific title that was merged over time from three lexemes good-will plus ambassador which is still used descriptively by the State of Kentucky to define the Kentucky Colonel as its "ambassador of good-will".
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
goodwill ambassador. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/goodwill%20ambassador
“goodwill ambassador.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/goodwill%20ambassador. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “goodwill ambassador,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/goodwill%20ambassador.
Source: goodwill ambassador on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.