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APG.American
Pronunciation Guide
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

head

/hɛd/

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What does head mean?

noun

  1. The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth, and main sense organs.
  2. Mental or emotional aptitude or skill.
  3. (figuratively) Mind; one's own thoughts.
More meanings (77)

noun

  1. A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.
  2. A headdress; a covering for the head.
  3. (figuratively) An individual person.
  4. A single animal; measure word for livestock and game.
  5. The population of game.
  6. The antlers of a deer.
  7. The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
  8. The end of a rectangular table furthest from the entrance; traditionally considered a seat of honor.
  9. The end of a pool table opposite the end where the balls have been racked.
  10. The end of a hammer, axe, golf club, or similar implement used for striking other objects.
  11. The end of a nail, screw, bolt, or similar fastener which is opposite the point; usually blunt and relatively wide.
  12. The larger-diameter end of an unused rivet, properly the factory head or ambiguously the shop head, as opposed to the bucktail which is passed through the items to be fastened and then upset into an appropriate shape, generally pancake-shaped for a solid rivet or doughnut-shaped for a blind rivet, called the field head or ambiguously the shop head.
  13. Either, or in plural both, ends of a used rivet, the factory head and the field head.
  14. The sharp end of an arrow, spear, or pointer.
  15. The top part of a lacrosse stick that holds the ball.
  16. A drum head, the membrane which is hit to produce sound.
  17. A machine element which reads or writes electromagnetic signals to or from a storage medium.
  18. The part of a disk drive responsible for reading and writing data.
  19. The cylinder head, a platform above the cylinders in an internal combustion engine, containing the valves and spark plugs.
  20. A milling head, a part of a milling machine that houses the spindle.
  21. The foam that forms on top of beer or other carbonated beverages.
  22. The end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel.
  23. The end cap of a cask or other barrel.
  24. The uppermost part of a valley.
  25. Deposits near the top of a geological succession.
  26. Synonym of tidal bore.
  27. Ellipsis of headline.
  28. The end of an abscess where pus collects.
  29. The headstock of a guitar.
  30. The top edge of a sail.
  31. The bow of a vessel.
  32. A headland.
  33. A title or heading in a book or other document.
  34. A leader or expert.
  35. The place of honor or command; the most important or foremost position; the front.
  36. A headteacher.
  37. (figuratively, slang) A person with an extensive knowledge of hip hop.
  38. (slang) An old head.
  39. The source of a river; the end of a lake where a river flows into it.
  40. A clump of seeds, leaves or flowers; a capitulum.
  41. An ear of wheat, barley, or other small cereal.
  42. The leafy top part of a tree.
  43. The rounded part of a bone fitting into a depression in another bone to form a ball-and-socket joint.
  44. The toilet of a ship.
  45. Tiles laid at the eaves of a house.
  46. The principal melody or theme of a piece.
  47. A morpheme that determines the category of a compound or the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member.
  48. The first fraction of a distillation run, having a low boiling point.
  49. Headway; progress.
  50. Topic; subject.
  51. Denouement; crisis.
  52. A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure head.
  53. The difference in elevation between two points in a column of fluid, and the resulting pressure of the fluid at the lower point.
  54. More generally, energy in a mass of fluid divided by its weight.
  55. (slang) The glans penis.
  56. (slang) A heavy or habitual user of illicit drugs.
  57. (slang, vulgar) Fellatio or cunnilingus; oral sex.
  58. (obsolete) Power; armed force.

adjective

  1. Of, relating to, or intended for the head.
  2. Foremost in rank or importance.
  3. Placed at the top or the front.
  4. Coming from in front.

verb

  1. To be in command of. (See also head up.)
  2. To come at the beginning or front of; to commence.
  3. To strike with the head
  4. To move in a specified direction.
  5. To remove the head from (a fish).
  6. To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.
  7. To form a head.
  8. To form a head (on or to); to fit or furnish (something) with a head.
  9. To cut off the top of; to lop off.
  10. To go in front of.
  11. To get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose.
  12. To check or restrain.
  13. To set on the head.
  14. (obsolete) To behead; to decapitate.

proper noun

  1. A surname from Middle English, from residence near a hilltop or the head of a river, or a byname for someone with an odd-looking head.
Wiktionary contributors Wiktionary contributors

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/hɛd/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

All the time they were playing the Queen never left off quarrelling with the other players, and shouting “Off with his head!”
Lewis CarrollAlice's Adventures in WonderlandProject Gutenberg ebook #11
There, however, remain a few which either did not fall naturally under any particular head or were forgotten in their proper places.
Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James MadisonThe Federalist PapersProject Gutenberg ebook #18
More book examples (3)
I would crawl into this bag, and there sleep on the cold, damp, clay floor, with my head in and feet out.
Frederick DouglassNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American SlaveProject Gutenberg ebook #23
“And is that true, Ivar, about the head ducks falling back when they are tired, and the hind ones taking their place?”
Willa CatherO Pioneers!Project Gutenberg ebook #24
“He’ll strain for money as a salmon will strain for the river’s head. ’Tis a thief and a robber, that’s what ’tis.”
Thomas HardyFar from the Madding CrowdProject Gutenberg ebook #27