head word

Other forms: head words

Definitions of head word
  1. noun
    a content word that can be qualified by a modifier
    synonyms: headword
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    type of:
    content word, open-class word
    a word to which an independent meaning can be assigned
  2. noun
    (grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent
    synonyms: head
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    type of:
    word
    a unit of language that native speakers can identify
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