heel
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The part of the clubhead where it joins the shaft.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
heelIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhil
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
anatomygolf
The part of the clubhead where it joins the shaft
The part of the palm of a hand closest to the wrist.
The part of a carding machine's flat nearest the cylinder.
The last or lowest part of anything.
Anything resembling a human heel in shape; a protuberance; a knob.
us
The base of a bun sliced in half lengthwise.
verb
To add a heel to, or increase the size of the heel of (a shoe or boot).
transitive
To arm with a gaff, as a cock for fighting.
Follow at the heels of a person
To follow at somebody's heels; to chase closely.
To cause to follow at somebody's heels (transitive).
Put a new heel on
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (golf) the part of the clubhead where it joins the shaft
Used this way, heel is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- hound , 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 heel
- “He drove the heel of his hand into the man's nose.”noun
- “She called to her dog to heel.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A piece of leather forming the back of a shoe or boot.
In disorderly haste.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.