spearhead
UK/ˈspɪə.hɛd//ˈspɪɹ.hɛd/
spearhead noun: the pointed head, or end, of a spear.
Noun
spearhead (plural spearheads)
- The pointed head, or end, of a spear.
- Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.[…]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
- Something or somebody leading or initiating an activity (such as an attack or campaign).
- Spearheads of the NER bargain fares attack this year have been the introduction of weekend fares at a 7s 6d in the £ discount on ordinary rates between principal stations throughout the Region—[...].1964 September, G. Freeman Allen, “Interim report on the East Coast Route express service”, in Modern Railways, pages 158–159
- Synonyms:
- driving force
- The leading military unit in an attack.
- A player who initiates attacking moves.
- England played at a tempo in attack that was too much for Bulgaria, with width provided at various times by Walcott, Young and Stewart Downing and Rooney acting as the potent spearhead.2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2020
Verb
spearhead (third-person singular simple present spearheads, present participle spearheading, simple past and past participle spearheaded)
- To drive or campaign ardently for (an effort, project, etc.); to direct.
- He spearheaded the entire project from day one.
- Newcastle have put themselves within touching distance after a fantastic run which has been spearheaded by the goals of Senegal striker Cisse.2012 April 21, Jonathan Jurejko, “Newcastle 3-0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 12 Sep 2018
spearhead meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic
spearhead in Urdu
- سنان
spearhead in Malayalam
- spear tip, spear point
- കുന്തമുന, കുന്തത്തല, കുന്തത്തി അഗ്രം, അമ്പിൻമുന, ശൂലാഗ്രം
- leaders, driving force, front runners
- കുന്തമുന, നായകൻ, നായകർ, മുന്നണിപ്പോരാളി, പ്രേരകശക്തി, ചാലകശക്തി
- head, lead, front
- കുന്തമുനയാകുക, നയിക്കുക, മുന്നിൽനിന്നു നയിക്കുക, ആക്രമണത്തെ നയിക്കുക, നേതൃത്വം വഹിക്കുക, മുമ്പിൽ നടക്കുക
spearhead in Kannada
- ನುಗ್ಗುಮೊನೆ
spearhead in Arabic
- the pointed head, or end, of a spear
- رأس حربة
More languagesFewer languages
- spearhead in Persian
- سرنیزه sarneyze, سنان senân
Examples of spearhead in a sentence
- George Monks spearheaded the project to solve this problem with a funicular, and work on the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway (L&LCR) began in 1887.2021 January 13, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Spectacular funiculars”, in RAIL, issue 922, page 53:
- Bessent has also been spearheading trade negotiations.2025 August 5, Elisabeth Buchwald, “Trump says Scott Bessent no longer in the running for Fed chair”, in CNN Business, archived from the...
Synonyms of spearhead
Forms of spearhead
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | spearheads |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | spearheads |
| present participle | spearheading |
| past participle | spearheaded |
| past | spearheaded |
Origin of spearhead
From Middle English spere-hed; equivalent to spear + head.
Words formed from spearhead
Questions about spearhead
- What does spearhead mean?
- Spearhead means the pointed head, or end, of a spear.
- What is spearhead in Urdu?
- Spearhead in Urdu is سنان. See Spearhead meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use spearhead in a sentence?
- George Monks spearheaded the project to solve this problem with a funicular, and work on the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway (L&LCR) began in 1887.
- What part of speech is spearhead?
- Spearhead can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce spearhead?
- Spearhead is pronounced /ˈspɪə.hɛd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of spearhead?
- The plural of spearhead is spearheads.
Words near spearhead in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spearhead (page history and authors); spearhead (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spearhead (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); spearhead (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-spearhead.ogg, en-au-spearhead.ogg.
Cite this entry: “spearhead.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spearhead. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.