head word

Questions about head word

What does head word mean?

head word means "a content word that can be qualified by a modifier". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for head word?

Close synonyms include headword, head. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is head word a common word?

head word is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.