VocabauraVOCABAURA

heading

noun

Simple meaning

The title or topic of a document, article, chapter, or of a section thereof.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hehding

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhɛdɪŋ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The title or topic of a document, article, chapter, or of a section thereof.

  2. nautical and aeronautical

    The direction or path along which something moves or along which it lies

  3. Material for the heads of casks, barrels, etc.

  4. nautical and aeronautical

    The direction into which a seagoing or airborne vessel's bow is pointing (apparent heading) and/or the direction into which it is actually moving relative to the ground (true heading)

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The title or topic of a document, article, chapter, or of a section thereof.

Used this way, heading is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • bearing , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use heading

  • “The heading seemed to have little to do with the text.”noun

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “heading”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

subject headinggeneral headingheading northheading southheading westcolumn headingmain heading

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • headnounBase word

    The upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • headernounPerson or profession

    A line of text serving to indicate what the passage below it is about.

  • headlessadjectiveDerived adjective

    Not having a head or formed without a head.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • headedadjectiveRelated term

    Having a heading or caption.

  • headlinenounRelated term

    The heading or caption of a newspaper article.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: title or topic of a document or article

bearingTechnicaldriftaim

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “heading” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

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.