Word.ws English Dictionary

heads or tails

heads or tails noun: the practice of flipping a coin in the air, to choose between two alternatives based on which side lands face up.

Noun

heads or tails

  1. (idiomatic) The practice of flipping a coin in the air, to choose between two alternatives based on which side lands face up.

heads or tails meaning in Tagalog and Arabic

heads or tails in Tagalog

heads or tails
kara-krus

heads or tails in Arabic

heads or tails
طُرَّةٌ أَم نَقْشٌ ṭurratun ʔam naqšun, طُرَّةٌ أَو نَقْشٌ ṭurratun ʔaw naqšun

Origin of heads or tails

Attested since at least 1833, on the second page of Galignani's Messenger: "amusing themselves by pitching quoits, spoiling halfpence at heads or tails with the gingerbread merchants, drinking beer, smoking, etc".

Questions about heads or tails

What does heads or tails mean?
Heads or tails means the practice of flipping a coin in the air, to choose between two alternatives based on which side lands face up.
What is heads or tails in Tagalog?
Heads or tails in Tagalog is kara-krus. See Heads or tails meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is heads or tails?
Heads or tails is a noun.

Words near heads or tails in the dictionary

  1. heads of the table
  2. Heads of the Valleys Road
  3. heads off
  4. heads off at the pass
  5. heads or harps
  6. heads or tails
  7. heads out
  8. heads south
  9. heads up
  10. heads up, seven up
  11. heads ups

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heads or tails (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-heads or tails.ogg.

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