headless
adjective
Simple meaning
Not having a head or formed without a head.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hehdluhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhɛdləs
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.
adjective
Not having a head or formed without a head
Without a head (body part).
Without a head (hardware or device feature).
of beer
Without a head of foam.
Without leadership.
Naturally having and needing no head.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not having a head or formed without a head
Used this way, headless 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
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use headless
- “The headless horseman.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Having no head.
Having had one's head cut off.
With the head removed.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A line of text serving to indicate what the passage below it is about.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: not having a head or formed without a head
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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.