Headwords

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A part of the body containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; a leader or person in charge of an organization or group; the top or front of something such as a table, bed, or page
2. The uppermost section of an organism housing sensory organs and the brain; the principal official or director of an institution; the foremost or leading position or end of an object
3. The anatomical structure at the top of the body that includes vital sensory and control centers; the chief authority or manager within a hierarchy; the leading edge or front portion of a physical item or surface

Etymology: Headwords is the plural of "headword", which is itself a compound of "head" and "word". The headword is the entry term at the top of a dictionary or glossary entry, the form under which the rest of the entry is filed. Its parts are plain English: "head" in the sense of the top or front of something, and "word" in its ordinary sense. The compound closely mirrors constructions in neighbouring languages. Dutch "hoofdwoord", German "Hauptwort" (the traditional term for a noun), and Swedish "huvudord" all follow the same pattern of a chief or principal word, and West Frisian "haadwurd" does too. The shared structure suggests the idea of a principal word heading a list of related terms is common across these Germanic languages.

Synonyms: entries, lemmas, headings, words