Headword

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The principal term placed at the start of a dictionary entry, under which its meaning and usage are explained
2. The leading word of a dictionary article that the rest of the entry describes and defines
3. The main entry term printed in bold at the beginning of a lexicon entry for readers to look up

Etymology: "Head" and "word" joined together, the term describes the word placed at the top of a dictionary entry, glossary item, or index listing, the form under which the rest of the entry is filed. The same pattern appears across neighbouring languages. Dutch has "hoofdwoord," Swedish "huvudord," and West Frisian "haadwurd," each built from its own word for "head" and its own word for "word." German goes a step further with "Hauptwort," which literally means "main word" and is also the standard term for a noun, so in German the headword of a dictionary entry and the grammatical noun share one name.

Synonyms: heading, title, caption