head
Pluralheads, head
Pluralheads, head
- 1The part of the body that contains the brain, mouth and main sense organs.
She shook her head and said nothing.
Heads turned as the car went by.
Similarnoggin, pate, nut, noodle
Note
Almost everything else the word does borrows this part's position or role. The top of a page, the end of a nail and the leader of a gang are all imagined as heads, which is why the "topmost part" sense and the leader feel so natural.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The bodily meaning supplies the basis for extended meanings involving position and function, including tops, tool ends and leaders. pressto.amu.edu.pl
- 2To make one's way, or set out, toward a place or in a given direction.
Where are you headed?
We'll head for open sea at dawn.
UsageCommon patterns: head for the coast, head north, head home. Where are you headed? is a common question.
Similarbear
- 3A leader or expert, especially the person in charge of a group.
The head of the family made the decision.
Department heads meet on Mondays.
UsageUsually the head of a group: the head of the department; also department heads.
Oppositesubordinate
- 4The mind, or one's own thoughts.
Get it into your head that we're leaving.
He did the sums in his head.
UsageUsed with place words: in your head, get something into your head, out of my head.
Note
The head pictured as a container for thought, so the prepositions are spatial. A song goes through it, a notion is in it, an idea gets into it. Where the "aptitude" sense rates what a mind can do, this one is about what happens to be in it at the moment. Doing sums in your head means working them out without writing anything down.
- 5To be in command or charge of a group, organization or undertaking.
Who will head the inquiry?
The delegation was headed by the foreign minister.
UsageOften passive with by: a delegation headed by the minister. Head up means the same.
Similarlead, chair, direct, run, command
Note
The verb for coming first uses an identical passive, so only context tells you whether authority or mere position is meant.
- 6Foremost in rank or importance.
She is head teacher at the village school.
Report to the head office in the morning.
UsageGoes before the noun: head teacher, head office, the head cook.
Similarchief
Note
This adjective began as a combining form: Old English hēafod- meant "main" at the front of compounds, as German haupt- and Dutch hoofd- still do.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The adjective descends from an Old English combining form. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English hēafod- meant “main” and occurred at the beginning of compounds. en.wiktionary.org
- 7The top, front or most important end of something, such as a list, a procession, a table or a bed.
Her name stands at the head of the list.
As the guest of honor, she sat at the head of the table.
UsageUsually at the head of: at the head of the table, the list, the stairs.
Note
Things laid out like a body get a head and a foot: the head of the page and its foot, the head of the stairs and the bottom. Where a thing has a front rather than a top, tail is the partner instead. Most of the word's object senses, from a nail to a glass of beer, are this general idea made specific.
- 8The main face of a coin, which often shows a portrait head, named as one of the two possible calls in a coin toss.
The referee flipped the coin, the visiting captain called heads, and it came up tails.
We couldn't agree on a restaurant, so it was heads for pizza and tails for tacos.
Oppositetails
Note
The call is made in the plural, heads, even though a coin has only one such face: you call heads, it comes up heads, and its partner is usually tails. The pairing gives the old taunt "Heads I win, tails you lose," said of any arrangement rigged so that one side cannot come out ahead whichever way things fall.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Heads is usually paired with tails; Irish English also has heads or harps. en.wiktionary.org
- “Heads I win, tails you lose” is an established old saying with this exact wording. en.wiktionary.org
- The saying derives from coin tossing and describes terms guaranteeing that the same participant wins either way. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 9A dense clump of leaves, flowers, or seeds on a plant, including the flower cluster known as a capitulum.
Cut the head of cabbage into quarters before steaming it.
Farmers wait until the wheat heads turn gold before harvesting.
UsageUsed as a counting word: a head of lettuce, two heads of cabbage.
Similarear
- 10An individual person or animal considered as a unit in counting; for livestock the plural stays head.
The caterer charged by the head.
Count heads before the bus leaves.
UsageA head means for each person: ten dollars a head; also per head and head count.
Similarperson, individual
- 11A heading or title at the top of a section of writing, or a headline in a newspaper.
Under the head "Travel Costs," the report lists every flight and hotel bill.
The report's heads are numbered for reference.
Similartitle, headline, rubric
Note
Heads organize as much as they label. A passage in an 1807 anthology of English prose ranges the phenomena of nature under three principal heads, so under a head comes close to meaning "in a category." The running head printed at the top of each page is the same word. Heads in a report are often numbered so that readers can refer to them.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The anthology was published in 1807: George Burnett’s Specimens of English Prose Writers. en.wikipedia.org
- The anthology contains a passage arranging the phenomena of nature under three principal heads. en.wiktionary.org
- 12To strike something with the head.
Defenders head the ball clear.
The striker headed it over the bar.
Similarnod
- 13The layer of froth that rises to the top of a poured beer or other fizzy drink.
A good stout has a thick, creamy head.
Tilt the glass to keep the head small.
Note
Beer foam counts both ways. Treated as an amount, it is uncountable: no head, too much head. Described as a feature of one particular glass, it takes an article: a thick, creamy head. Pourers tilt the glass to keep it small, and the size and thickness of the head are part of how a beer is judged.
- 14The striking end of a hammer, axe, golf club or similar implement.
Fit a new head to the old handle.
Steel heads outlast wooden handles.
- 15The end of a nail, screw, bolt or similar fastener opposite the point, usually blunt and wide.
The hammer slipped off the head of the nail.
Countersunk heads sit flush with the wood.
Note
A nail or screw usually has two ends named against each other: the head, and the point or tip. The head is broad because it takes the blow or the driving tool and bears against the material. Countersunk heads are shaped to sit flush with the surface. The phrase hit the nail on the head keeps the image of a clean, square blow landing on exactly this spot.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- This describes typical nails and screws, but is not true of all fasteners; even nails can be headless. en.wikipedia.org
- A broad head also provides a bearing surface against the material; screw heads can receive other driving tools, including wrenches. en.wikipedia.org
- Countersunk heads are designed to sit flush with the surrounding surface. en.wikipedia.org
- The idiom evokes an accurate blow to the nail's head. learningenglish.voanews.com
- 16Coming from in front, against the direction of travel.
The pilot allowed for a head wind on the climb.
Head seas broke green over the bow.
Similaradverse, contrary, opposing, oncoming
Note
A small family of compounds about what a vessel or aircraft meets bow-on: head wind, head sea, head tide. The direction is reckoned from the bow of a ship, so a head wind slows you down. Tail, as in tail wind, names the push from behind.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A head sea meets a vessel from the bow, against its course. en.wiktionary.org
- A headwind reduces forward speed over the ground. grc.nasa.gov
- A tailwind blows from behind, along the direction of travel. weather.gov.hk
- 17The teacher in charge of a school.
Our head retires this summer after twenty years.
Heads of local schools met the minister.
UsageShort for head teacher, often in the possessive: sent to the head's office. Principal names the same post.
Similarprincipal, headmaster, headmistress, chief
Oppositesubordinate
Note
British and Irish school talk: head is the everyday short form of head teacher, and it replaces headmaster or headmistress without marking sex.
- 18
- 19A natural aptitude or capacity, intellectual or emotional, for a particular activity.
You need a head for figures in that job.
She has a good head for languages.
UsageUsually have a head for something: a head for figures, no head for heights.
Similarmind
Note
A head for heights is the odd one, since the skill there is steadiness rather than reasoning. The fixed phrase a good head on your shoulders praises plain good sense.
- 20
- 21A headland: a point of high land jutting out into the sea.
Similarpromontory, point, cape
Note
It applies the broader idea of a head as the topmost or foremost part of something to land that pushes furthest out into the sea, so walkers go out onto the head and a lighthouse stands on it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The headland sense is an application of the broader meaning of head as the topmost or foremost part. en.wiktionary.org
- A head is a projecting coastal landform. en.wikipedia.org
- 22The part of an internal combustion engine that closes the top of the cylinders, usually holding the valves and often the spark plugs or injectors.
The head bolts to the block with ten studs.
The mechanic took the head off the engine and found a crack running between two of the valve seats.
Note
In the workshop, cylinder head shrinks to plain head. It bolts onto the engine block, which holds the cylinders, and usually carries the valves, and often the spark plugs, above them. An engine with two banks of cylinders, such as a V8, usually has two heads. A warped head no longer sits flat, which is why heads are machined back to a true surface.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The cylinder head bolts onto the engine block. briggsandstratton.com
- The engine block contains the cylinders. en.wikipedia.org
- Overhead-valve engines have valves in the head; sidevalve engines have them in the block. en.wikipedia.org
- This requires qualification: diesel engines have no spark plugs. autolite.com
- Two-bank engines usually have two heads, but exceptions include the Volkswagen VR6, with one shared head. en.wikipedia.org
- Warping compromises head flatness, and resurfacing restores a flat surface. ri-engineering.com
- 23The membrane of a drum that is struck to produce the sound.
Loosen the head before you pack the drum.
Plastic heads replaced calfskin in the sixties.
Note
In drumming, the word names the skin itself, the membrane that is struck, rather than the drum's upper end. It counts like any object (a new head, two heads), and the verbs around it are the drummer's: tap, tune, loosen, replace. Drum head is the full name, and in context the bare head is enough.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- A drumhead is a membrane that is struck to produce sound. en.wikipedia.org
- 24Pressure built up in a fluid, often stated as a measured figure called pressure head.
The fireman kept shoveling coal until the boiler had a full head of steam.
With more head behind the dam, the turbines generate more power.
Similarpressure
Note
The grammar shifts with the setting. A boiler builds a head of steam, counted with a, while a dam has a lot of head, or not enough, as a mass noun. Either way, more head means more push behind the pistons or the turbines. When engineers put a figure on it, they usually state it as a height of fluid.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- A boiler develops steam pressure. gutenberg.org
- Steam pressure supplies the force that drives a steam engine's piston. gutenberg.org
- Greater hydraulic head produces greater pressure to drive turbines. usbr.gov
- Engineers express hydraulic pressure head as the height of a fluid column. energy.gov
- 25
- 26To occupy the first position in something, either at its beginning or at its front.
A quotation from Milton will head the chapter.
The column was headed by a brass band.
Similarlead, top, front, open, precede
Note
Position without authority: clowns can head a procession and a locomotive can head a train without commanding anything. In the passive, what comes first follows by (a train headed by a locomotive). When the thing at the front is a label at the top of a text, with can also appear, as in citations headed with a date.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- With can also appear when the thing at the front is a label; by remains possible. gate.ac.uk
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30A headache, especially one caused by drinking too much.
He had a thick head after the office party and skipped breakfast.
Cheap champagne always leaves me with a head the next day.
UsageUsually a head, as in have a head or a thick head the morning after drinking.
Note
Conan Doyle has a man ask for a drop of Scotch because "I've a head on me this morning", and Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) speaks of the head that followed after drink. Without the drinking in view it can still mean a plain headache, though readers may take it for the body part.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Conan Doyle gives a man the quoted request for Scotch; the speaker is Silas Linden in The Land of Mist. gutenberg.net.au
- Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills describes a headache following drinking. archive.org
- Plain Tales from the Hills was first published in 1888. archive.org
- 31The bow of a vessel.
Keep her head to the sea in this swell.
Both boats had their heads to the shore.
Oppositestern
Note
A sailor's word that behaves two ways grammatically. Counted, it belongs to a particular boat: her head, their heads to the shore. It also settles into fixed phrases, as in down by the head, said of a vessel riding low at the front. It is the foremost part carried onto the water, and its opposite on a ship is the stern.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The nautical meaning denotes a vessel's foremost part or bow. gutenberg.org
- Down by the head contains the definite article the. msi.nga.mil
- Down by the head describes a vessel sitting lower at the front. msi.nga.mil
- In this nautical sense, head contrasts with stern. Foot and tail contrast with other senses of head. msi.nga.mil
- 32A machine component that picks up electromagnetic signals from, or records them onto, a storage medium such as magnetic tape.
The drive failed when the read head scraped the spinning disk.
Technicians cleaned the heads with alcohol before the recording session.
- 33A toilet aboard a ship.
The recruit spent his first morning at sea scrubbing the head.
On the old destroyer, forty sailors shared two cramped heads.
Similartoilet, john, latrine, privy, lav
Note
Aboard a vessel this is simply the word for the toilet: sailors say head where people ashore say bathroom or restroom, as in go to the head or scrub the heads. The name goes back to sailing ships, whose crew toilets were placed at the bow of the ship, right at the front. Naval and maritime speech keeps it in everyday use.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- The toilet sense of 'head' derives from the location of sailors' toilets at the head or bow of sailing ships. en.wikipedia.org
- 34The point at which a growing problem or conflict reaches a crisis and has to be resolved, as in come to a head.
Months of tension between the coach and the players came to a head at Tuesday's practice.
The leaked report brought the long-running dispute over the budget to a head.
UsageMostly in come to a head and bring something to a head.
Note
The picture is close to the head of a boil or abscess, pressure gathering until it breaks, and older English made that plain: in Shakespeare's Richard II, foul sin, gathering head, shall break into corruption. The Spectator in 1712 could still speak of an illness grown to such a head.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The physical image resembles pus building pressure in a boil or abscess before drainage. news.uams.edu
- The quotation occurs in Shakespeare's Richard II, spoken by King Richard in Act 5, scene 1. folger.edu
- The Spectator used this wording about an illness in 1712; the passage appears in an anonymous letter in No. 513, dated October 18, 1712. gutenberg.org
- 35The tip of an abscess, the point at which its pus gathers.
Warm compresses can help an abscess form a head so that it drains on its own.
The nurse warned him not to squeeze the head of the abscess.
Note
An abscess grows a head rather than starting with one: as pus gathers, it comes to a head, or points, in a soft, raised spot near the surface. That spot is where the abscess tends to burst on its own, and where a doctor will often open it to let it drain.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- A superficial abscess develops a head as pus approaches the surface; this is called pointing, with a soft, raised area that can subsequently open spontaneously. gutenberg.org
- Doctors commonly open an abscess over its softest, most fluctuant area to drain the pus. saem.org
- 36The rounded end of a bone that fits against another bone to form a joint, such as a ball-and-socket or pivot joint.
- 37Progress or forward movement, usually against something opposing.
- 38To cut off the top of a tree or plant; to lop.
- 39The total stock of wild animals hunted in an area.
- 40The bony growths on a deer's skull, usually branched, taken together.
- 41In pool, the short end of the table from which players break, across from the racked balls.
- 42The frame at the top of a lacrosse stick, with the net pocket used to catch and carry the ball.
- 43On a milling machine, the housing that holds the rotating spindle and cutter.
- 44The closed, often curved, cap that seals each end of a cylindrical tank built to hold pressure.
- 45The flat round piece that closes either end of a barrel or cask.
- 46The top end of a valley, where it starts in higher ground.
- 47Loose material lying at the upper end of a series of rock layers.
- 48The top end of a guitar's neck, where the tuning pegs are fitted.
- 49The upper border of a sail, or the highest corner of a three-sided sail.
- 50Someone who knows a great deal about hip hop music and culture.
- 51The seed-bearing spike at the top of a stalk of wheat, barley, or a similar grain.
- 52The crown of a tree, its leafy upper part.
- 53The row of tiles laid along the lower edge of a roof, at the eaves.
- 54The chief tune of a composition, especially in jazz, played before and after the solos.
- 55The part of a compound or phrase that decides its word class or grammatical type, as "house" does in "greenhouse."
- 56The earliest portion collected when distilling, made up of the liquids that boil off at the lowest temperatures.
- 57A subject or theme, especially one of the sections a discussion is divided into.
- 58The height of fluid between two levels in a column, or the pressure this height creates at the lower level.
- 59In fluid mechanics, the energy carried by a body of fluid, measured per unit of its weight.
- 60Someone who takes illegal drugs regularly or in large amounts.
- 61A body of armed troops gathered together, or the military strength it gives.
My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head:
1591, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt” - 62Relating to or meant for the part of the body above the neck.
- 63To cut off a fish's head, usually when preparing it for cooking.
- 64Of a river or stream, to rise or have its source in a particular place.
- 65Of a plant, to develop a compact cluster of leaves, flowers or seeds, as cabbage or broccoli do.
- 66To shape the end of an object into a head, or fit it with a separate one.
- 67To cut off the head of a person or animal.
If you head, and hang all that offend that way but for ten yeare together; you'll be glad to giue out a Commission for more heads
c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure” - 68To lead, moving ahead of others.
- 69To get ahead of someone or something in order to block or turn it back.
- 70To hold back or keep under control.
Showing meanings only.
More uses
- headsthe side of a coin with a head on it, called when tossing a coin
- come to a headto reach a point where something must be dealt with
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English hed, from Old English hēafod ("head; top; chief"), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud and Proto-Germanic *haubudą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *káput. It is related to Dutch hoofd, German Haupt, and Latin caput, and is a doublet of cape, caput, chef, and chief.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Head derives from Middle English hed. en.wiktionary.org
- The Middle English word derives from Old English hēafod. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English hēafod meant head, top, and chief. gutenberg.org
- The reconstructed ancestry runs through Proto-West Germanic *haubud and Proto-Germanic *haubudą to Proto-Indo-European *káput. en.wiktionary.org
- Head is related to Dutch hoofd and German Haupt. en.wiktionary.org
- Head is related to Latin caput. en.wiktionary.org
- Head is a doublet of cape, caput, chef, and chief. en.wiktionary.org
Proto-West Germanic *haubida-, built on the noun *haubid ("head"), gave Old English hēafod- ("main") and then Middle English heed. West Frisian haad-, Dutch hoofd-, and German haupt- are relatives.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Proto-West Germanic *haubida-, derived from the noun *haubid meaning 'head', gave Old English hēafod- meaning 'main'. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English heed descended from Old English hēafod-. en.wiktionary.org
- West Frisian haad-, Dutch hoofd-, and German haupt- are cognates. en.wiktionary.org