headlight

English

Etymology

From head +‎ light.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdˌlaɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

headlight (plural headlights)

1. A bright light, with a lens and reflector, on the front of a motor vehicle (or originally a ship or train), designed to illuminate the road when driving at night; normally one of a pair.
   • 2026 January 8, Drew Reagan, “A driving source of light pollution: How car headlights are reshaping the nighttime environment”, in DarkSky International‎^[1]:

     Improving how headlights are designed and controlled does not have to mean choosing between environmental protection and public safety. Smarter lighting that reduces unnecessary brightness and glare can benefit wildlife, improve driver comfort, and support safer nighttime travel.

2. (US, slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A woman's breast.
   • 1993, Quantum Leap, season 5, episode 14, spoken by Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell):

     Oh, well. She's got... great... casabas. […] Well, you know. Melons. […] Hoo-has? Honkers? Hooters? Headlights? Uh... tatas? Teeters? Tweeters? Tom-toms? Tetons? […] I'm trying to say it. Uh, meatballs. Mangoes. Cream pies. Cupcakes? Uh... bangers? Bouncers? Bulumbas? […] Bazongas? Breasts! I said it.

3. (Canada, slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A woman's erect nipples, partially masked by clothing.
4. (US, slang, chiefly in the plural) A jewel; especially a diamond.
5. (US, slang, chiefly in the plural) Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

Synonyms

• (motor vehicle light): headlamp
• (breast): See also Thesaurus:breast.
• (nipple): See also Thesaurus:nipples.

Hypernyms

• light

Derived terms

• deer in the headlight syndrome
• dipped headlight
• halo headlight
• headlighted
• headlight fish
• headlight fluid
• headlighting
• someone's headlights are on

Translations

bright light in front of vehicle

• Afrikaans: hooflig
• Apache:

  Western Apache: bidáá

• Armenian: ցոլարձակ (hy) (cʻolarjak), լուսարձակ (hy) (lusarjak)
• Azerbaijani: fara
• Belarusian: фа́ра f (fára)
• Bulgarian: фар (bg) m (far)
• Catalan: far (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 車燈 / 车灯 (zh) (chēdēng), 燈 / 灯 (zh) (dēng), 前照燈 / 前照灯 (zh) (qiánzhàodēng) (front)

• Czech: světlomet (cs) m
• Danish: kørelys n (collective)
• Dutch: koplamp (nl) c
• Esperanto: reflektoro (eo)
• Estonian: esilatern
• Faroese: forlykt f, koyriljós n
• Finnish: ajovalo (fi), valonheitin (fi)
• French: phare (fr) m
• Georgian: ფარა (para)
• German: Scheinwerfer (de) m, Vorderscheinwerfer m, Frontscheinwerfer m
• Greek: προβολέας (el) m (provoléas)
• Hebrew: פנס (he) m (panás)
• Hindi: हेडलाइट (heḍlāiṭ)
• Hungarian: fényszóró (hu)
• Icelandic: ökuljós
• Italian: fanale (it) m, faro (it) m, abbaglianti (it) m pl
• Japanese: ヘッドライト (ja) (heddoraito), 前照灯 (ja) (ぜんしょうとう, zenshōtō)
• Kazakh: фара (fara)
• Khmer: ចង្កៀងមុខ (cɑɑngkiəng muk)
• Korean: 헤드라이트 (hedeuraiteu), 전조등 (ko) (jeonjodeung)
• Kyrgyz: фара (fara)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: фар m (far)
• Malay: lampu puncak
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: урд гэрэл (urd gerel), том гэрэл (tom gerel), их гэрэл (ix gerel)

• Norman: veue f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hovedlykt m or f, kjørelys

  Nynorsk: køyrelys

• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: reflektor (pl) m
• Portuguese: lanterna (pt) f

  Brazilian Portuguese: farol (pt) m

• Romanian: far (ro) n
• Russian: фа́ра (ru) f (fára)
• Scottish Gaelic: solas mòr m, prìomh-sholas m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: фар m

  Latin: far (sh) m

• Shan: ၽႆးၵႃး (phái káa)
• Slovak: svetlomet m
• Slovene: žaromet m
• Spanish: faro (es) m, foco (es) m, farol (es) m (Latin America)
• Swedish: strålkastare (sv) c, framlykta c, billjus n
• Tajik: чароғ (čaroġ)
• Thai: ไฟหน้า (th) (fai-nâa)
• Turkish: far (tr)
• Ukrainian: фа́ра f (fára)
• Uzbek: fara (uz)
• Vietnamese: đèn pha (vi), pha (vi), pha xe, đèn (vi)
• Welsh: golau blaen m, priflamp f
• Yiddish: פֿאָנאַר m (fonar)

See also

• dome light
• fog lamp
• idiot light
• indicator
• sidelight
• taillight

References

• Eric Partridge (2005), “headlights”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 1 (A–I), London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 979.
• headlight on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• lighthead