Word.ws English Dictionary

airhead

Syllables: air·head/ˈɛə̯hɛd//ˈɛɹˌ(h)ɛd/

airhead noun: an area of hostile territory that has been seized for use as an airbase to ensure the further safe landing of troops and materiel. Also the alternative form of air-head.

Noun (1)

airhead (plural airheads)

  1. An area of hostile territory that has been seized for use as an airbase to ensure the further safe landing of troops and materiel.
    • The only difference between an airhead and a beachhead is that an airhead covers 360 degrees whereas a beachhead usually covers 180 degrees. An airhead is two beachheads back to back with the reinforcements and resupply coming by air instead of by sea. [...] [T]o handle their mountainous...1946 December, James M[aurice] Gavin, “Airborne Armies of the Future: Part One”, in Infantry Journal: A Magazine for the Ground Combat Forces, volume LIX, number 6, Washington, D.C.: Infantry...
    • In another war airheads will be more important than beachheads. Neither one will work unless we can keep it adequately supplied. The successful combat air force will require a huge transport fleet for air lift.1948 August 28, W. B. Courtney, “Air Transport: The Answer to Air Power”, in Walter Davenport, editor, Collier’s, volume 22, number 9, Springfield, Oh.: Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, →ISSN...
  2. (broadly) A (usually temporary) landing area for aircraft for supplying a non-military operation.

Noun (2)

airhead (plural airheads)

  1. (derogatory, informal) A foolish, silly, or unintelligent person.
    • Sometimes people tell you directly that you aren't very smart, but most of the time they ignore your attempts to display your intelligence, or they kid you about being a "space case" or an "airhead." After a while you are bound to see yourself as not very intelligent, particularly if the people who...1989, Lynne Kelly, Arden K. Watson, “The Process of Communication”, in Speaking with Confidence and Skill (Speech Communication Series), Lanham, Md.; London: University Press of America, →ISBN, page...
    • Yeah. Well, Tammi is a bit of an airhead, I guess, but I feel sorry for her.1996, Mary Ann Scott, chapter 4, in Doris Cowan, editor, Ear-witness: A Jessica March Mystery, Toronto, Ont.; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Boardwalk Books, Dundurn Group, →ISBN, page 24

Also used as

airhead is also the alternative form of air-head.

airhead meaning in Malay and Thai

airhead in Malay

area of hostile territory seized for use as an airbase
tumpuan udara

airhead in Thai

area of hostile territory seized for use as an airbase
หัวหาดอากาศ

Examples of airhead in a sentence

  • The only difference between an airhead and a beachhead is that an airhead covers 360 degrees whereas a beachhead usually covers 180 degrees.1946 December, James M[aurice] Gavin, “Airborne Armies of the Future: Part One”, in Infantry Journal: A Magazine for the Ground Combat...
  • The initial airhead may in fact be a series of smaller airheads which, after landing, join up in combat structure as mutually supporting in a tactical sense.1957, Army, volume 8, Arlington, Va.: Association of the United States Army, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 27:
  • The French quickly massed a division-sized force of airborne soldiers within the airhead.1990 April, Robert H. Scales, Jr., “The First Indochina War”, in Firepower in Limited War, Washington, D.C.: National Defense University...
  • He advocated a total restructuring of the Allied offensive so that instead of an overland advance, it would seize airheads and leapfrog forward by air to Hanoi, in Indochina.2007, David Isby, “CBI 1942–44”, in C-47/R4D Skytrain Units of the Pacific and CBI (Osprey Combat Aircraft; 66), Oxford, Oxfordshire...

Synonyms of airhead

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of airhead

Forms of airhead

pluralairheads

Origin of airhead

From air + head (“foremost, topmost, or leading part”), sense 1 (“area of hostile territory seized for use as an airbase”) by analogy with beachhead and bridgehead.

From air + head, in the sense of having one’s head filled with air instead of a brain; compare empty-headed.

Words formed from airhead

Questions about airhead

What does airhead mean?
Airhead means an area of hostile territory that has been seized for use as an airbase to ensure the further safe landing of troops and materiel.
What is airhead in Malay?
Airhead in Malay is tumpuan udara. See Airhead meaning in Malay.
How do you use airhead in a sentence?
The only difference between an airhead and a beachhead is that an airhead covers 360 degrees whereas a beachhead usually covers 180 degrees.
What part of speech is airhead?
Airhead is a noun.
How do you pronounce airhead?
Airhead is pronounced /ˈɛə̯hɛd/ (UK).
What is the plural of airhead?
The plural of airhead is airheads.

Words near airhead in the dictionary

  1. airgunner
  2. airgunners
  3. airguns
  4. Airhart
  5. Airharts
  6. airhead
  7. airheaded
  8. airheadedness
  9. airheads
  10. airheater
  11. airheaters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: airhead (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-airhead.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Aadenboy-airhead.wav.

Cite this entry: “airhead.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/airhead. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.