headword

English

Alternative forms

• head word

Etymology

From head +‎ word. Compare West Frisian haadwurd (“noun, substantive, headword”), Dutch hoofdwoord (“headword”), German Hauptwort (“noun, substantive, headword”), Swedish huvudord (“headword, keyword”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdwɜːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdwɝd/

Noun

headword (plural headwords)

1. A word (or compound term) used as the title of a list entry or section, particularly in a dictionary, encyclopedia, or thesaurus.

   Coordinate terms: heading, head, subheading, subhead, rubric

   Hypernym: definiendum

   Hyponym: lemma

2. (grammar) Any word which may be modified by an adjunct; often, the core noun of a noun phrase.

   Synonym: head

   In "a very discerning car shopper", "shopper" is the headword.

Translations

word used as the title of a section

• Armenian: գլխաբառ (hy) (glxabaṙ)
• Catalan: entrada (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 標題字／标题字 (biāodìzì)

• Dutch: trefwoord (nl) n
• Esperanto: kapvorto
• Finnish: hakusana (fi)
• French: mot vedette (fr) m, vedette (fr) f
• Georgian: სასათაურო სიტყვა (sasatauro siṭq̇va), ვოკაბულა (voḳabula)
• German: Stichwort (de) n, Schlagwort (de) n, Stichpunkt (de) m
• Hungarian: címszó (hu)
• Italian: voce (it) f
• Japanese: 見出し語 (みだしご, midashigo)
• Latvian: šķirklis m
• Norwegian: oppslagsord n
• Polish: hasło (pl) n
• Portuguese: entrada (pt) f
• Romanian: cuvânt-titlu (ro) n
• Russian: загла́вное сло́во n (zaglávnoje slóvo)
• Scottish Gaelic: ceannfhacal m
• Spanish: lema (es) m, entrada (es) f, palabra principal f
• Swahili: kidahizo (sw)
• Swedish: uppslagsord (sv) n, stickord (sv) n
• Welsh: prifair m

word modified by an adjunct

• Finnish: pääsana (fi); jälkiosa (in a compound term)
• Hungarian: főtag, alaptag (hu), fej (hu)

See also

• headword on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• basic form
• canonical form
• citation form
• dictionary form
• lemma