Head

How to spell head

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce head

What does head mean?

1. nounThe upper part of the body containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
2. nounThe person in charge of an organisation, department, or group.
3. verbTo move or travel in a particular direction.

Head in a sentence

• noun

  She bumped her head on the low doorway.

• noun

  The head of the marketing department approved the budget.

• verb

  After the meeting they decided to head straight home.

• noun

  The cyclist wore a helmet to protect his head.

• noun

  She became head of the company after years of loyal service.

• verb

  We should head north to reach the coast before dark.

Where does head come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, descended from the Old English heafod, which named the top part of the body just as it does now. That form came in turn from a Proto-Germanic root that also gave Dutch its hoofd and German its Haupt, all tracing back to an ancient root meaning the rounded top or chief part. Over the centuries the spelling and pronunciation shrank from the two-syllable heafod to the tight single syllable we write today, which is why the modern word looks far simpler than its long history. From the literal body part the meaning spread outward in very practical directions: the head of a household, the head of a river, the head of a nail, and the verb sense of heading toward a place. The trap for writers is purely phonetic, since the 'ea' is pronounced as a short 'e', the same surprising vowel that hides inside bread, dead, and ready.

How the word is built

• head (whole word; from Old English heafod, a single native root with no separable prefix or suffix)