headache
Americannoun
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headaches
plural
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a pain located in the head, as over the eyes, at the temples, or at the base of the skull.
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an annoying or bothersome person, situation, activity, etc.
noun
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Technical name: cephalalgia. pain in the head, caused by dilation of cerebral arteries, muscle contraction, insufficient oxygen in the cerebral blood, reaction to drugs, etc
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informal any cause of worry, difficulty, or annoyance
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Pain in the head, caused by stimulation of or pressure to any of various structures of the head, such as tissue covering the cranium, cranial nerves, or blood vessels. Headache can be a primary disorder, as in migraine or cluster headaches, or a common symptom associated with head injury or many illnesses such as acute infection, brain tumor or abscess, eye disorders such as glaucoma, dental disease, and hypertension.
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See also cluster headache migraine
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of headache
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hēafodece. See head, ache
Compare meaning
How does headache compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A headache is a pain or ache in your head, especially one that lasts longer than a few minutes. You might get a headache after a day of staring at a computer screen. There are many reasons for getting a headache, from staying up too late to a stressful day to skipping your morning cup of coffee. A more serious type of headache, like a migraine, might keep you home from work for a day, but most headaches are just a nuisance. You can also describe a problem or struggle as a figurative headache: "Learning Danish is turning out to be a real headache." In Old English, the word was heafodece.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Salmonella infection could result in diarrhea, nausea, headache and stomach cramps.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Moderna’s study found that mFlusiva carries a higher risk of fatigue, headache, and other side effects than earlier vaccines.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
Metering usage by tokens — the individual units of data processed by an AI model — is becoming a major headache.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
About a week after being bitten, symptoms include tiredness, headache and symptoms of an infection including seizures, confusion or slurred speech, and loss of movement in part of the body.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
By the end of each day, he had a bleach headache plus a hunger headache.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Careful planning in the early stages of memory loss can prevent financial and estate-planning headaches later.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
He is among the investors giving headaches to the money managers who want them to part ways with their cash.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
But the next morning he noticed flashing in his eyes alongside headaches and later discovered both of his retinas had been damaged.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
The 48-hour purchasing windows were granted through random lottery, but even a guaranteed slot to purchase didn’t prevent headaches as the ticketing system was fraught with technical glitches and high website traffic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Each time she had backaches, headaches, cramps, and then—of course—no baby.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
