headword
/ˈhɛdwɝd/noun
headword is spelled H-E-A-D-W-O-R-D: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 74 million words in written English, the 272,462nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, headword means “A word (or compound term) used as the title of a list entry or section, particularly in a dictionary, encyclopedia, or thesaurus” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of headword is headwords.
How many letters and syllables are in headword?
| Letters | 8: H-E-A-D-W-O-R-D |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 74 million words; the 272,462nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is headword?
Headword appears about once in every 74 million words in written English, the 272,462nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce headword?
- UK /ˈhɛdwɜːd/
- US /ˈhɛdwɝd/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-headword.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of headword
- headwords plural
- head word
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does headword mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A word (or compound term) used as the title of a list entry or section, particularly in a dictionary, encyclopedia, or thesaurus.
- 2
The head of a phrase.
In "a very discerning car shopper", "shopper" is the headword.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Headword in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense word used as the title of a section:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mot vedette, vedette |
| German | Stichwort, Schlagwort, Stichpunkt |
| Portuguese | entrada |
| Spanish | lema, entrada, palabra principal, palabra capital, palabra cefálica, palabra encabezada |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does headword come from?
From head + word. Compare West Frisian haadwurd (“noun, substantive, headword”), Dutch hoofdwoord (“headword”), German Hauptwort (“noun, substantive, headword”), Swedish huvudord (“headword, keyword”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).