Word.ws English Dictionary

head in the sand

head in the sand noun: a state of disregarding or denying a problem or threat.

Noun

head in the sand (plural heads in the sand)

  1. A state of disregarding or denying a problem or threat.
    • People who deny the inevitable zombie apocalypse have their heads in the sand.
    • In my opinion, the railways still have their heads in the sand on the subject of railway liveries.1961 June, B. A. Haresnape, “Design on the railway: Part Four”, in Trains Illustrated, page 354

Forms of head in the sand

pluralheads in the sand
alternative formhead-in-the-sand

Origin of head in the sand

A reference to the imagined habit of the ostrich burying its head when threatened.

Questions about head in the sand

What does head in the sand mean?
Head in the sand means a state of disregarding or denying a problem or threat.
What part of speech is head in the sand?
Head in the sand is a noun.
What is the plural of head in the sand?
The plural of head in the sand is heads in the sand.

Words near head in the sand in the dictionary

  1. head house
  2. head houses
  3. head hunter
  4. head hunters
  5. head in the clouds
  6. head in the sand
  7. head joint
  8. head joints
  9. head kicker
  10. head kickers
  11. head kidney

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: head in the sand (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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Cite this entry: “head in the sand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/head_in_the_sand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.