Headword

//ˈhɛdwɜːd// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A word (or compound term) used as the title of a list entry or section, particularly in a dictionary, encyclopedia, or thesaurus.
  2. 2
    a word placed at the beginning of a line or paragraph (as in a dictionary entry) wordnet
  3. 3
    The head of a phrase.

    "In "a very discerning car shopper", "shopper" is the headword."

  4. 4
    a content word that can be qualified by a modifier wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
base formbasic formbasic formheadhead wordlexeme

Example

More examples

"In this dictionary the pronunciation comes right after the headword."

Etymology

From head + word. Compare West Frisian haadwurd (“noun, substantive, headword”), Dutch hoofdwoord (“headword”), German Hauptwort (“noun, substantive, headword”), Swedish huvudord (“headword, keyword”).

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