Beheading

noun, verb

noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An instance of a person being beheaded. countable, uncountable

    "A large crowd gathered to see the beheading."

  2. 2
    killing by cutting off the head wordnet
  3. 3
    execution by cutting off the victim's head wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of behead form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
decapitationaxbeheadmentburningcapital punishmentchair

Example

More examples

"Jihadis are capable of beheading civilians, murdering children and raping defenceless women, but when it comes to fighting a military force they don't want to know, and they come back here to their comfortable homes with their tails between their legs."

Etymology

From behead + -ing.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.