headache

1. 1.

   something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness

   “New York traffic is a constant concern”

   “it's a major worry”

   Synonymsconcernworryvexation

   Broadernegative stimulus

   Narrowerbugabooburdenbusiness
2. 2.

   pain in the head caused by dilation of cerebral arteries or muscle contractions or a reaction to drugs

   Synonymshead achecephalalgia

   Broaderache

   Narrowerhistamine headachemigrainesick headachesinus headachetension headache

Other forms of headache

plural

headaches·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about headache

What does headache mean?

headache means "something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in headache?

headache has 2 syllables: head-ache. The stress falls on "head". In IPA it is /ˈhɛˌdeɪk/.

What is another word for headache?

Close synonyms include concern, worry, vexation, head ache, cephalalgia. 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 headache a common word?

headache is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.