Word.ws English Dictionary

talking head

Syllables: talk·ing headUK/ˌtɔːkɪŋ ˈhɛd/US/ˌtɔkɪŋ ˈhɛd/

talking head noun: a journalist or pundit, especially one on television, who presents or discusses issues of the day.

Noun

talking head (plural talking heads)

  1. (also, attributive, idiomatic) A journalist or pundit, especially one on television, who presents or discusses issues of the day.
    • Early TV newscasts consisted largely of "talking heads"—a reporter reading news bulletins or interviewing prominent politicians—but maps were frequently employed as visual aids, particularly for war news.1989, Mark [Stephen] Monmonier, “Maps in the Electronic Media”, in Maps with the News: The Development of American Journalistic Cartography, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN...
    • We've seen the respect once reserved for serious thinkers transferred to talking-head experts, skilled at reducing their messages to thirty-second sound bites.1999, Laurence G. Boldt, “The Leisure to Grow”, in The Tao of Abundance, New York, N.Y.: Penguin/Arkana, →ISBN

Forms of talking head

pluraltalking heads

Origin of talking head

Probably from the fact that when a pundit is speaking on television, the camera often zooms in on his or her head.

Questions about talking head

What does talking head mean?
Talking head means a journalist or pundit, especially one on television, who presents or discusses issues of the day.
What part of speech is talking head?
Talking head is a noun.
How do you pronounce talking head?
Talking head is pronounced /ˌtɔːkɪŋ ˈhɛd/ (UK).
What is the plural of talking head?
The plural of talking head is talking heads.

Words near talking head in the dictionary

  1. talking drums
  2. talking everything
  3. talking fast and loose
  4. talking film
  5. talking films
  6. talking head
  7. talking heads
  8. talking in circles
  9. talking into
  10. talking like a book
  11. talking like an apothecary

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: talking head (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: en-au-talking head.ogg.

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