behead
/bɪˈhɛd/
behead verb: to deliberately remove the head of; to cut off (someone's) head.
Verb
behead (third-person singular simple present beheads, present participle beheading, simple past and past participle beheaded)
- To deliberately remove the head of; to cut off (someone's) head.
- “For a while it was hand-to-hand between us,
then blood went curling along the currents
and I beheaded Grendel's mother in the hall
with a mighty sword.”]1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 68
- Synonyms:
- decapitate, decollate
- “For a while it was hand-to-hand between us,
behead meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
behead in Tamil
- to remove the head
- தலை துண்டி talai tuṇṭi, கவர் kavar, தலை கொய் talai koy
behead in Urdu
- to remove the head
- سرقلم کرنا sar qalam karna
behead in Bengali
- শিরশ্ছেদ করা, মাথা কেটে ফেলা
behead in Malayalam
- ശിരഛേദം ചെയ്യുക
More languagesFewer languages
- behead in Kannada
- ತಲೆಕಡಿ, ತಲೆಕತ್ತರಿಸು, ಶಿರಚ್ಛೇದಮಾಡು, ತಲೆತೆಗೆ
- behead in Tagalog
- pugutan
- behead in Arabic
- ضَرَبَ عُنُقَهُ ḍaraba ʕunuqahu
- behead in Malay
- pancung
- behead in Indonesian
- memenggal, memancung
- behead in Persian
- گردن زدن gardan zadan
- behead in Thai
- ตัดศีรษะ dtàt sǐi-sà
- behead in Vietnamese
- chặt đầu, chém đầu
Examples of behead in a sentence
- As methods of execution go, beheading is more humane than drawing and quartering.
- A large crowd gathered to see the beheading.
- They gasped at the sight of the beheaded king.
Synonyms of behead
Forms of behead
| third-person singular present | beheads |
|---|---|
| present participle | beheading |
| past participle | beheaded |
| past | beheaded |
Origin of behead
From Middle English beheden, bihefden, biheveden, from Old English behēafdian (“to behead”), from Proto-West Germanic *bihaubudōn, *bihaubidōn (“to behead”), equivalent to be- (“off, away”) + head. Cognate with Middle High German behoubeten (“to behead”).
Words formed from behead
Words that rhyme with behead
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- dread
- wed
- ahead
- bread
- sled
- embed
- in one's stead
- inbred
- ped
- zed
- bestead
- cred
- ed
- fed
- med
- undead
- abed
- bedspread
- DMZ
- Fred
- led
- Prussian red
- retread
- spoon-fed
- unwed
- z
- antired
- aspread
- bark bed
- bested
- bled
- block head
- bred
- cabin bed
- common thread
- Cow Head
- Crow Head
- faned
- fled
- freedom bread
- fugged
- instead
- ked
- knead
- misled
- ned
- pled
- read
Questions about behead
- What does behead mean?
- Behead means to deliberately remove the head of; to cut off (someone's) head.
- What is behead in Tamil?
- Behead in Tamil is தலை துண்டி (talai tuṇṭi), கவர் (kavar), தலை கொய் (talai koy). See Behead meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is behead?
- Behead is a verb.
- How do you pronounce behead?
- Behead is pronounced /bɪˈhɛd/.
- What is the past tense of behead?
- The past tense of behead is beheaded.
Words near behead in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: behead (page history and authors); behead (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); behead (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); behead (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-behead.ogg.
Cite this entry: “behead.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/behead. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.