Sentence Correction

Could any of the experts please help me in understanding this concept...


What is the difference between 'Chief' ; 'chief of' and 'chief among'?

I know some part of it.

Basically all the three things mean the same thing i.e chief meaning main or the top one.

But there is some difference between 'chief of' and 'chief among'...

'chief of' is used when we refer to a member of a group. As we are not comparing here so we use of.

But when you are comparing or measuring the intensity or magnitude of something, 'chief among' is used.

eg: lets say in the passing of a project, out of a lot of problems, the pricing is the major problem or pricing is giving the maximum problem.

In that case, 'pricing is the chief among a lot of problems.' This is the correct usage.

I hope I am correct, as I got this sentence in one of the crack the gmat tests...


Please try to give the explanation with a lot of examples as this will help a lot of students studying on this site.

Thank You...