Word.ws English Dictionary

headright

UK/ˈhɛdɹʌɪt/

headright noun: a legal grant to own unsettled land in colonial America, or the land so claimed.

Noun

headright (plural headrights)

  1. (Canada, US, historical) A legal grant to own unsettled land in colonial America, or the land so claimed.
    • By 1846 we had moved past the line of settlement, to my father's headright on the Pedernales.2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 4

Forms of headright

pluralheadrights

Origin of headright

From head + right.

Questions about headright

What does headright mean?
Headright means a legal grant to own unsettled land in colonial America, or the land so claimed.
What part of speech is headright?
Headright is a noun.
How do you pronounce headright?
Headright is pronounced /ˈhɛdɹʌɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of headright?
The plural of headright is headrights.

Words near headright in the dictionary

  1. headrest
  2. headrests
  3. Headrick
  4. Headricks
  5. headrig
  6. headright
  7. headrights
  8. headrigs
  9. headring
  10. headrings
  11. headroach

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: headright (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:

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