A resignation occurs when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down. Leaving of a job upon the expiration of a term is not a resignation. A resignation is a personal decision to exit a position, though outside pressure exists in many cases.

This can be used politically, as in Iran when lawmakers resigned in protest when they feared recent reforms would be repealed. One of the most famous resignations in history is that of Richard Nixon from the office of President of the United States in 1974 following the Watergate scandal.

Although government officials may tender their resignations, they are not always accepted. The word abdication is an equivalent term used for the resignation of reigning monarchs.

List of resignations

• John Rutledge - 1791 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Thomas Johnson - 1793 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• John Jay - 1795 - Chief Justice of the United States
• John Blair - 1795 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Oliver Ellsworth - 1800 - Chief Justice of the United States
• Alfred Moore - 1804 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Daniel D. Tompkins - 1817 - Governor of New York
• Martin Van Buren - 1829 - Governor of New York
• John C. Calhoun - 1832 - Vice President of the United States
• Gabriel Duval - 1835 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Francis R. Shunk - 1848 - Governor of Pennsylvania
• Benjamin Robbins Curtis - 1857 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• John Archibald Campbell - 1861 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• David Davis - 1877 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Grover Cleveland - 1885 - Governor of New York
• John W. Griggs - 1898 - Governor of New Jersey
• Charles Evans Hughes - 1910 - Governor of New York
• William Henry Moody - 1910 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Woodrow Wilson - 1913 - Governor of New Jersey
• Charles Evans Hughes - 1916 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• John Hessin Clarke - 1922 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Mahlon Pitney - 1922 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• James F. Byrnes - 1942 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Herbert H. Lehman - 1942 - Governor of New York
• Owen Josephus Roberts - 1945 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Edward Martin - 1947 - Governor of Pennsylvania
• Walter E. Edge - 1947 - Governor of New Jersey
• Arthur Joseph Goldberg - 1965 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Abe Fortas - 1969 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Spiro T. Agnew - 1973 - Vice President of the United States
• Nelson A. Rockefeller - 1973 - Governor of New York
• Richard Milhous Nixon - 1974 - President of the United States
• Albert Reynolds - 1991 - Irish Minister for Finance
• Morihiro Hosokawa - 1994 - Prime Minister of Japan
• Tsutomu Hata - 1994 - Prime Minister of Japan
• Christine Todd Whitman - 2001 - Governor of New Jersey
• Mikhail Saakashvili - 2001 - Georgian Minister for Justice
• Tom Ridge - 2001 - Governor of Pennsylvania
• Christine Todd Whitman - 2003 - Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Eduard A. Shevardnadze - 2003 - President of Georgia
• George Tenet - 2004 - Director of Central Intelligence
• James McGreevey - 2004 - Governor of New Jersey
• Carlos Mesa - 2005 - President of Bolivia (Rejected by National Congress)