front
Pluralfronts
Adjectivefurther front, farther front, furthest front, farthest front
Pluralfronts
Formsfurther front, farther front, furthest front, farthest front
Formsfronts, fronting, fronted
- 1The part or side of something that faces forward or comes first, such as the leading end of a vehicle, a building's entrance side, or a book's opening pages.
The dented front of the truck needed a new bumper and grille.
Passengers near the front of the train felt the sudden jolt first.
UsageAt the front of the train means in its foremost part; in front of the train means outside it, ahead.
- 2
- 3The area where opposing armies are in active combat, especially along the line where they meet.
Fresh troops moved up to the front before dawn.
The general inspected conditions along the eastern front.
UsageOften at the front or to the front. With a direction it names a whole area: the eastern front.
Similarbattlefront
Oppositerear
Note
The soldier's sense, and the one most civilians know: the front is where the fighting is, set against the rear behind it. The drill-book sense of a unit's width narrows it down, and the word can also mean simply the enemy's direction.
- 4A particular sphere of activity or effort, considered as one area among several.
On the financial front, the company reported steady gains.
Progress on the research front has been slow but steady.
UsageUsually with an adjective and on: on the financial front, progress on several fronts.
Note
A figurative extension of the line of combat: a field of effort is pictured as one sector of a wider campaign.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Using front for a sphere of effort extends the military image figuratively. kiplingsociety.co.uk
- 5The most prominent or conspicuous position, where something stands out most.
Climate policy moved to the front of the national agenda.
New evidence pushed the case back to the front of public attention.
UsageMostly to the front: move to the front of the agenda.
Oppositeback
Note
Shakespeare's Othello fixes this sense in a phrase still quoted: the very head and front of my offending, meaning the chief part and full extent of the fault.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- William Shakespeare wrote Othello. folger.edu
- The quotation is accurately worded and is spoken by Othello in the play. folger.edu
- The phrase describes the utmost extent of Othello's offence. shakespeare-navigators.ewu.edu
Less common meanings
- 6The transition zone between two air masses of different density and temperature, often producing precipitation where they meet.
Forecasters tracked the front as it swept across the plains.
A warm front usually brings steady rain ahead of clearing skies.
UsageUsually a cold front or a warm front.
Note
A forecaster's word, and a precise one. The boundary is defined by density, but temperature governs density more than anything else, so nearly every front divides warmer air from colder. That is why the everyday names are warm front and cold front. Because fronts so often bring rain, news of one coming in matters to anyone with washing on the line.
- 7A person or organization that serves as the public face concealing another person, group, or secret activity, often an illegal one.
The charity turned out to be a front for money laundering.
He acted as a front for investors who wished to stay anonymous.
UsageOften a front for something: a front for money laundering. For one person, also front man.
- 8A deliberate, false impression of oneself; an act or façade put on to mislead others.
He kept up a confident front throughout the difficult negotiations.
Behind that tough front, she was deeply anxious about the result.
UsageUsually put on a front or keep up a front.
Similarfacade, act, show, mask, pretense
Note
The false face began as a face. Behind it lies the old sense of front as the brow or face, and Shakespeare's smiling fronts in Coriolanus sit right on the line between countenance and mask. Macaulay's bold front is the courage-showing version.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Front has an old sense meaning the brow or face. en.wiktionary.org
- Shakespeare uses the words “smiling fronts” in Coriolanus; the speaker is Cominius in Act I, scene vi. firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
- Macaulay uses “bold front” to describe a display of courage. gutenberg.org
- 9To lead or act as the public spokesperson for a campaign, organization, or group.
He was chosen to front the new safety initiative.
She fronts a band and writes most of their songs.
UsageFront a campaign or a band, with no preposition. Front for someone suggests a cover-up.
Note
A celebrity who fronts a campaign, as Ray Winstone did for the Football Association, is the visible face of something everyone knows about. Fronting a band, the lead singer's job, belongs here too.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Ray Winstone acted as a public face of a Football Association campaign. thefa.com
- 10To provide money or financial assistance to someone in advance, ahead of repayment.
The studio agreed to front the director the budget for early filming.
A local investor fronted them the startup costs.
UsageTakes two objects like lend: front someone the money. In formal contexts, say advance or lend.
Note
The cash comes first, and the repayment or the deal comes later. Danielle Steel's Ransom has a character claim he fronted money for a business deal that paid off brilliantly.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Danielle Steel wrote Ransom. penguin.co.uk
- Ransom contains dialogue in which a character proposes claiming to have fronted money for a business deal whose investment paid off brilliantly. en.wiktionary.org
- 11A coastal promenade or the open ground along a town's seafront.
Like a town square, but stretched out along the water's edge.
Brighton's front bustles with day-trippers all summer long.
They opened a little café on the front overlooking the bay.
UsageUsually the front: a walk along the front, a café on the front. Seafront means the same.
Note
A British seaside word. In a resort town, the front is the promenade and the strip of ground facing the water.
- 12To face or be positioned directly opposite something, looking out upon it.
The grand houses front the river along the old quay.
A row of shops fronts the central square.
UsageOften used of buildings or rooms, or with on or onto: houses that front the river.
Note
Buildings and rooms do most of this sense's work, as with the dining room that fronted the lane in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. D. H. Lawrence stretches it in Sons and Lovers, where a woman sits and fronts the evening, looking out at it the way a house looks onto a street.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice. gutenberg.org
- Pride and Prejudice describes a dining room that fronted the lane. gutenberg.org
- D. H. Lawrence wrote Sons and Lovers. gutenberg.org
- Sons and Lovers describes a woman sitting and fronting the evening. gutenberg.org
- 13To serve as a cover for another person or group, concealing who is really in control.
The company existed only to front for investors who wanted to stay hidden.
She refused to front for the people running the scam.
UsageUsually front for someone, with the hidden party after for. In formal writing, say act as a front.
Similarcover
Note
The action behind the cover-operation noun: to front for someone is to be the respectable face they operate behind. Harold Robbins's A Stone for Danny Fisher has a man who fronts for the fight mob while officially running the arena.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Harold Robbins's A Stone for Danny Fisher describes an arena manager fronting for the fight mob. en.wiktionary.org
- 14To put on a false or misleading appearance in order to impress or deceive others.
Like a store with a fancy window display hiding empty shelves.
Teenagers often front to seem tougher than they really are.
He was only fronting because he felt insecure around the older guys.
UsageFrontin' is an informal spelling of fronting, as in He's just frontin'.
Similarpose, posture, pretend, bluff
Note
Street and hip-hop slang made this intransitive verb famous, often clipped to frontin'. Weezer's "Buddy Holly" (1994) asks why others feel the need to do it, and Bobby Hill's "Mad Real" admits to doing it. Put on airs and feign are close in meaning, but the slang word usually means posing as tougher or cooler than you are.
- 15To meet someone or something head-on; to face up to and confront directly.
The minister was forced to front reporters over the scandal.
She fronted the board and defended her decision.
Note
A combative sense with a long literary pedigree. Marlowe's Edward the Second (1594) has a man who will front the mightiest, Shakespeare's Archbishop of York asks what well-appointed leader fronts us here, and George Eliot's Dagley fronts a visitor in Middlemarch (1871–1872). Its tone is steadier and older than the street challenge of the cocky, aggressive verb.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Christopher Marlowe wrote Edward the Second, first published in 1594. emed.folger.edu
- Edward the Second contains the phrase 'will front the mightiest', describing Gaveston. emed.folger.edu
- George Eliot's Middlemarch depicts Dagley confronting a visitor. gutenberg.org
- 16To decorate the front of something with an ornament, or to place something on its front.
Like dressing a shop's facade with bright signs and trim.
The architects fronted the hall with a row of stone arches.
Builders front the new homes with brick to match the older street.
UsageUsually passive with with: houses fronted with brick, a hall fronted with arches.
Similarface
- 17To behave in a cocky, aggressive way, or to confront someone.
Like puffing out your chest to seem bigger than you really are.
They love to front whenever they feel disrespected.
She fronted him in front of everyone, daring him to respond.
Similarconfront, posture, swagger
Note
African-American Vernacular gives this sense its edge. To front is to act cocky and disrespectful, or to square up to someone directly. The posing in the false-appearance verb is about seeming, while this sense is about challenge.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The cocky or confrontational sense is associated with African-American Vernacular English. en.wiktionary.org
- 18A decorative metal covering worn over the front teeth; a grill.
Like a piece of bling, but made to clip onto your teeth.
The rapper's gold front gleamed under the stage lights.
The rapper flashed his diamond fronts at the camera.
Similargrill
Note
Dental jewelry in slang, and usually a plural word: fronts, like grills, are removable decorative covers worn over the front teeth, often gold or jeweled. Kevin's line in Barry Jenkins's Moonlight (2016), "them fronts? That car?", treats them as a mark of new status.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Fronts are dental covers, also called grills, generally removable and often made of gold or decorated with precious stones. en.wikipedia.org
- Moonlight is a 2016 film directed by Barry Jenkins. a24films.com
- Moonlight was released in 2016. a24films.com
- Kevin says the quoted words; the surrounding exchange supports interpreting the fronts as a sign of Chiron's changed adult status and persona. dailyscript.com
- 19Of a vowel, produced with the highest part of the tongue pushed toward the front of the mouth, near the hard palate.
Linguists classify the vowel in 'beat' as a front vowel.
In many languages, front vowels trigger softening of nearby consonants.
Oppositeback
Note
The phonetician's classification by tongue position. Front vowels, such as the one in dress, are made with the tongue raised toward the hard palate, and they stand opposite back vowels. The movement of sounds toward this position is what the verb to front describes.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Front vowels are classified by tongue position and are produced with the front of the tongue raised toward the hard palate. en.wiktionary.org
- The vowel in dress is a front vowel. teachrealenglish.org
- Front and back vowels contrast in the horizontal position of the tongue. sheffield.ac.uk
- To front a sound means to move its articulation toward the front of the mouth. en.wikipedia.org
- 20Used to summon a worker on duty, such as a bellhop, to come and assist.
Like a chef calling 'Service!' to bring a waiter to the pass.
The desk clerk barked “Front!” and the nearest porter sprang into action.
“Front!” came the cry, summoning a bellhop to carry the guest's luggage.
Note
A hotel-lobby call, shouted from the desk to bring the next bellhop running. The bellhop whose turn it is to answer is himself called a front. Cheaper by the Dozen (1948) repeats it as Front, boy. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) moves it out of the hotel, with Harshaw yelling it to summon Miriam.
- 21The shameless, disrespectful boldness of someone who speaks or acts without regard for what is proper.
The new clerk had the front to correct his manager's grammar during the board meeting.
The salesman never lacked front: he overcharged a customer and then asked her for a referral.
UsageFits the same frame as cheek: have the front to do something.
Similaraudacity, nerve, cheek, effrontery, gall
Note
Impudence named after part of the face: the word came through Old French from Latin frons, "forehead", the root of an old sense of front meaning the brow, and the image is a brow held up without shame.
- 22In military use, the width of ground occupied by a unit, measured from one flank to the other.
- 23To pronounce a sound with the tongue positioned toward the front of the mouth.
- 24To move a word or clause to the start of a sentence, as in certain emphatic or grammatical constructions.
- 25Of a futures contract or its expiry time, nearest to expiration: the first contract due to expire.
- 26Of an alter in a person with multiplicity, to be the member of the system currently presenting and in control of the body.
- 27A large Soviet army formation, roughly equal to an army group and made up of several armies.
- 28Either of the breasts on a female body.
Turning their Backs... ON FRONTS. CONVIVIAL WAITRESS: D... Don't you want to ogle me? SICKO MILLENNIAL: No... I hate breasts!
2019, Ward Sutton as Stan Kelly, “Wings And A Pair” - 29A hairpiece that women once wore over the forehead to add curls or fullness.
like any plain Miss Smith's, who wears a front
1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh - 30The brow above the eyes, or at times the entire face.
His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.
c. 1700, Matthew Prior, Seeing the Duke of Ormond's Picture at Sir Godfrey Kneller's - 31The hotel bellhop next in line to answer a guest's call, often summoned by the desk clerk calling out this word.
- 32To appear before a person or body, such as a court.
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Practice
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Origin
Latin frōns, frontem ("forehead") passed through Old French front into Middle English as front. Frons is a doublet.