acephalic

Adjective

acephalic (not comparable)

1. Without a head.
   • an acephalic statue
   • […] two acephalic sardines in mustard sauce are asleep in the rank darkness of their tin container.1990, Mark Leyner, My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, New York: Harmony Books, page 5

   Synonyms:

   acephalous, headless

2. (dated) Characterized by a migraine aura without pain.
3. Without a leader.
   • an acephalic society
   • […] he endeavours not only to shew that the English Church was Acephalic, that is, without a Head; but also Autocephalic, that is under its own proper Jurisdiction only […]1688, uncredited translator, A Dissertation Concerning Patriarchal and Metropolitical Authority by Emmanuel Schelstrate, London: Matthew Turner, [Introduction], p. xx

   Synonyms:

   acephalous, leaderless

4. Deficient in the beginning, as a line of poetry that is missing its expected opening syllable.
   • The acephalic pentameters yield to tetrameters with a starting dactyl or anapest […]1988, John Hollander, chapter 7, in Melodious Guile: Fictive Pattern in Poetic Language, Yale University Press, page 146

   Synonyms:

   acephalous

5. Lacking the first portion of the text. (of a manuscript)
   • All the texts, with the exception of the acephalic Homiletic Fragment I, begin with a large, plain capital letter […]2014, Mark C. Amodio, “The Poems of the Vercelli Book”, in The Anglo-Saxon Literature Handbook, Chichester: Blackwell, page 176

   Synonyms:

   acephalous