Headlinese
//ˌhɛd.laɪˈniz// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The jargon used in headlines of newspapers, often with unconventional grammar driven mainly by extreme brevity as a constraint of the medium. uncountable
"[Otto] Jespersen, a language professor known for his expertise in syntax and language development, stated that headlinese is not really grammatical writing."
- 2 using the abbreviated style of headline writers wordnet
Example
More examples"[Otto] Jespersen, a language professor known for his expertise in syntax and language development, stated that headlinese is not really grammatical writing."
Etymology
From headline + -ese.
More for "headlinese"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.