Word.ws English Dictionary

heading

/ˈhɛdɪŋ/

heading is the present participle and gerund of head.

Noun

heading (plural headings)

  1. The title or topic of a document, article, chapter, or of a section thereof.
    • put the information under the "Advantages" heading
  2. (nautical and aeronautical) The direction into which a seagoing or airborne vessel's bow is pointing (apparent heading) and/or the direction into which it is actually moving relative to the ground (true heading)
  3. Material for the heads of casks, barrels, etc.
  4. A gallery, drift, or adit in a mine, particularly one driving through a solid body of coal or ore; also, the end of a drift or gallery; the vein above a drift.
    • http://undergroundcoal.com.au/fundamentals/01_process.aspx
      Once access has been gained into the coal seam, workings are developed by mining a series of roadways (or headings). These roadways are tunnels largely, if not totally, within the seam, usually rectangular in shape though on occasions they...
    Synonyms:
    roadway
  5. The extension of a line ruffling above the line of stitch.
  6. The end of a stone or brick which is presented outward.
  7. (flags) A strip of material at the hoist end of a flag, used for attaching the flag to its halyard.

Meaning of head

Verb

head (third-person singular simple present heads, present participle heading, simple past and past participle headed)

  1. (transitive) To be in command of. (See also head up.)
    • Who heads the board of trustees?
  2. (transitive) To come at the beginning or front of; to commence.
    • A group of clowns headed the procession.
    Synonyms:
    lead, front
  3. (transitive) To strike with the head
    • to head the ball
  4. (intransitive) To move in a specified direction.
    • We are going to head up North for our holiday.
    Synonyms:
    seek, bear
  5. (transitive) To remove the head from (a fish).
    • Near-synonyms: behead, dehead
    Synonyms:
    behead, dehead
  6. (intransitive) To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.
    • a broad purling river, that heads in the great blue ridge of mountains,1775, James Adair, The History of the American Indians, page 223

See all 79 meanings of head

Synonyms of heading

Forms of heading

pluralheadings

Origin of heading

From head + -ing.

Words formed from heading

Phrases with heading

Words that rhyme with heading

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about heading

What does heading mean?
Heading means the title or topic of a document, article, chapter, or of a section thereof.
What is heading the present participle and gerund of?
Heading is the present participle and gerund of head.
What part of speech is heading?
Heading is a noun.
How do you pronounce heading?
Heading is pronounced /ˈhɛdɪŋ/.
What is the plural of heading?
The plural of heading is headings.

Words near heading in the dictionary

  1. headiest
  2. headily
  3. headin'
  4. headiness
  5. headinesses
  6. heading
  7. heading for the hills
  8. heading off
  9. heading off at the pass
  10. heading out
  11. heading south

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heading (page history and authors); head (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-heading.ogg.

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