Charter: A Founding Document, and a Hired Aircraft
A charter is a formal document granting rights or setting out principles. It is also the hiring of a whole plane, boat or bus, which is a very different sense of the same word.
A charter is a written grant of rights, or the document that founds an institution. The transport sense grew from the same root by a sideways step: chartering a ship once meant hiring it under a written contract, and the contract gave its name to the hire.
- A founding or granting document. *The university's royal charter.*
- A statement of rights or principles. *The United Nations Charter.*
- The hire of a vehicle or vessel. *A charter flight to Antalya.*
- To hire or to grant a charter (verb). *They chartered a boat for the day.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | charter | A city charter. |
| Verb | charter | Charter a coach. |
| Adjective | chartered | A chartered accountant. |
| Compound | charter flight | A charter flight from Manchester. |
| Compound | charter school | A charter school in Ohio. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The company was granted a royal charter in 1660.Formal incorporation by the Crown.
- They chartered a minibus for the wedding.Hired the whole vehicle, not seats on it.
- She is a chartered surveyor.A protected title granted by a chartered professional body.
Charters you may have heard of
- Magna Carta — the great charter of 1215, limiting royal power
- The UN Charter — the 1945 treaty founding the United Nations
- Royal charter — grants corporate status in the United Kingdom
- Charter school — an American publicly funded school run under a charter
- Charter party — the contract hiring a whole ship
From Old French *chartre*, from Latin *charta*, a sheet of papyrus or paper. The physical sheet named the legal document, and the document eventually named the act of hiring recorded on it.
What does chartered mean in a job title?
That the holder is a member of a professional body incorporated by royal charter, with regulated standards — as in chartered engineer or chartered accountant.
Charter or scheduled flight?
A scheduled flight runs to a published timetable and sells individual seats. A charter is hired as a whole, usually by a tour operator.