Word.ws English Dictionary

head over heels

UK/ˌhɛd əʊ.və ˈhiːlz/US/ˌhɛd oʊ.vɚ ˈhilz/

head over heels adverb: tumbling upside down; somersaulting.

Adverb

head over heels (not comparable)

  1. Tumbling upside down; somersaulting.
    • She tripped and rolled head over heels down the hill.
    • They then placed themselves on the edge of the hill, and sitting down and putting their hands round their knees, they tumbled down one after another, rolling head-over-heels till they disappeared in the valley.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 417
  2. At top speed; frantically.
    • Hearing the noise in the dark, the children ran head over heels back home.
    • It told its readers that people all over the country were "rushing head over heels toward the El Dorado on the Pacific— that wonderful California, which sets the public mind almost on the highway to insanity."1968, Vardis Fisher, Opal Laurel Holmes, Opal Laurel Fisher, Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West, page 46
  3. (usually) Hopelessly; madly; to distraction; deeply; utterly.
    • I am head over heels in trouble.1904, Henry Huttleston Rogers, “Letter from Rogers to Clemens (Mark Twain) dated 8 February 1904”, in Mark Twain's Correspondence with Henry Huttleston Rogers, 1893–1909, University of California...
    • Some of them lose and wind up head over heels in debt. Some of them win and wind up head over heels in debt.1967, Russell B. Long, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 90th Congress - First Session, United States Congress, page 16122
    Synonyms:
    head over ears

Adjective

head over heels (not comparable)

  1. Hopelessly smitten; madly in love.
    • Something happens and I'm head over heels / Ah, don't take my heart, don't break my heart / Don't, don't, don't throw it away1985, Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, “Head Over Heels”, performed by Tears for Fears
    • Steve is the hottest, smartest, funniest, and most athletic boy in all of Edison High. Who knew a jock could be captain of the math team? He is also the guy that every girl is head over heels for.2011, Martina Manicastri, Climb into My Mind: A Book of Poems, Essays, and Short Stories, →ISBN, page 74

Examples of head over heels in a sentence

  • I was knocked head over heels about 20' from where I was before.2011, Wes Harvey, A Most Unusual Life, page 83:
  • There over, hereunder / You got me head over heels / There's nothing left to fear / If you really feel the way I feel2001 August 30, Shakira, “Whenever, Wherever”, in Laundry Service:
  • I mean, do I just fall head over heels for the last girl I've kissed?2002, Francine Pascal, Liar, page 184:
  • For research we went to Africa, and found ourselves head over heels into ritual (chapter 4).2005, Ronald Frankenberg, Edith L. B. Turner, Heart of Lightness: The Life Story of an Anthropologist, page 2:

Synonyms of head over heels

All synonyms of head over heels

Origin of head over heels

Attested from the 14th century onwards, originally as heels over head, which better rendered the notion of things being upside down (head over heels is the standard state of being).

Words formed from head over heels

Questions about head over heels

What does head over heels mean?
Head over heels means tumbling upside down; somersaulting.
How do you use head over heels in a sentence?
I was knocked head over heels about 20' from where I was before.
What part of speech is head over heels?
Head over heels can be an adverb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce head over heels?
Head over heels is pronounced /ˌhɛd oʊ.vɚ ˈhilz/ (US).

Words near head over heels in the dictionary

  1. head on one's shoulders
  2. head orgasm
  3. head orgasms
  4. head out
  5. head over ears
  6. head over heels
  7. head pressing
  8. head priest
  9. head priests
  10. head pump
  11. head pumps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: head over heels (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-au-head over heels.ogg.

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