Word.ws English Dictionary

househead

househead noun: the head of a household, typically the primary wage-earner.

Noun

househead (plural househeads)

  1. The head of a household, typically the primary wage-earner.
    • Even in the families of full-time farmers the swift developments of post-war agriculture have prompted a shift of managing authority from the househead to his youthful heir.1972, Tadashi Fukutake, Japanese Rural Society, page 54
    • These include all households having total incomes less than $8,500 per year with both househead and spouse working.1974, Harriet Caplan, Cost of living affects Pennsylvania's socio-economic groups, page 4
  2. In an organization that is divided into houses, the person with authority over and responsibility for a house.
    • When staying all night with a friend, a girl must obtain permission from her househead and the housemother or householder.1951, John Cowgill Clevenger, Student Personnel Services - Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College
    • The househead, operating on a two-thirds teaching timetable, accepts academic and pastoral responsibility for 120 11 year old pupils from specific feeder schools.1982, Secondary Education Journal - Volume 12, page 7

Examples of househead in a sentence

  • In so far as there is any division of property, this is not occasioned by the death of the househead.2013, Ron P. Dore, City Life in Japan, →ISBN, page 101:
  • During that period, the prospective employee is assessed by the househead and the rest of the staff.1985, Ontario Labour Relations Board, Ontario Labour Relations Board Reports, page 1475:

Forms of househead

pluralhouseheads

Origin of househead

From house + head.

Questions about househead

What does househead mean?
Househead means the head of a household, typically the primary wage-earner.
How do you use househead in a sentence?
In so far as there is any division of property, this is not occasioned by the death of the househead.
What part of speech is househead?
Househead is a noun.
What is the plural of househead?
The plural of househead is househeads.

Words near househead in the dictionary

  1. Housego
  2. housegod
  3. housegods
  4. houseguest
  5. houseguests
  6. househead
  7. househeads
  8. househelp
  9. househelps
  10. household
  11. household appliance

Source and license

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