Word.ws English Dictionary

headways

headways is the plural of headway.

Meaning of headway

Noun

headway (countable and uncountable, plural headways)

  1. A movement ahead or forward.
  2. Forward motion, or its rate.
  3. (countable) The interval of time or distance between the fronts of two vehicles (e.g. buses) moving in succession in the same direction, especially along the same predetermined route.
    • The whole of the main lines to be electrified were being equipped with four-aspect colour-light signals, automatically operated, where appropriate, and spaced to give a 5min headway throughout.1961 December, “Planning the London Midland main-line electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 719
  4. (figuratively, uncountable) Progress toward a goal.
  5. (countable) The clearance beneath an object, such as an arch, ceiling or bridge; headroom.
    • So as not to impede navigation the two principal spans of the bridge were designed to provide a clear headway of 157 ft. above high water for a distance of 500 ft.; [...].1941 January, the late John Phillimore, “The Forth Bridge 1890-1940”, in Railway Magazine, page 5
  6. A crossheading.

Questions about headways

What is headways the plural of?
Headways is the plural of headway.

Words near headways in the dictionary

  1. headwark
  2. headwarks
  3. headwater
  4. headwaters
  5. headway
  6. headways
  7. headwear
  8. headwears
  9. headwheel
  10. headwheels
  11. headwidth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: headways (page history and authors); headway (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-headways.wav.

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