bridgehead
noun
Simple meaning
An area of ground on the enemy's side of a river or other obstacle.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
brijhedSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɹɪdʒhɛd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
military
An area of ground on the enemy's side of a river or other obstacle, especially one that needs to be taken and defended in order to secure an advance.
military
A fortification around the end of a bridge.
An area around the end of a bridge.
military
A defensive post at the end of a bridge nearest to the enemy
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An area of ground on the enemy's side of a river or other obstacle, especially one that needs to be taken and defended in order to secure an advance.
Used this way, bridgehead is a specialist word with a faintly unfavourable edge. This is a military use: it belongs to service and operational language.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Military
- Historical writing
- News/reporting
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bridgehead
- “An attempt to secure a bridgehead behind enemy lines.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.