- present tense form of headquarter (3rd person singular).
headquarters
Americannoun
-
headquarters
plural
-
a center of operations, as of the police or a business, from which orders are issued; the chief administrative office of an organization.
The operatives were always in touch with headquarters.
-
the offices or working location of a military commander; the place from which a commander customarily issues orders.
-
a military unit consisting of the commander, his staff, and other assistants.
plural noun
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any centre or building from which operations are directed, as in the military, the police, etc
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a military formation comprising the commander, his staff, and supporting echelons
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of headquarters
Explanation
The main office of an organization is its headquarters. The headquarters of your favorite video game company might be in New York. Companies, clubs, and religious groups all have headquarters, or a central administrative location. Militaries also have headquarters, although the word has a slightly different meaning in that context — military headquarters are where commanders and their staffs live and work. The word has been around since the 1600's, from the "most important or principal" meaning of head and quarters, originally "military dwelling place," and later "lodgings."
Vocabulary lists containing headquarters
Superhero Lexicon
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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.
There was little IPO talk when the company gathered some of its earliest investors and partners at its headquarters Thursday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
"That is materially different from distributing critical literature outside the headquarters of a public broadcaster."
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Along with co-op facilities, he also purchased a plot of land in Delano to house the union’s first headquarters and learned how to handle media amid Chávez’s historic fasts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Speaking in Wolfsburg, home to Volkswagen's largest factory and headquarters, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said Germany would urge Brussels, which oversees EU trade policy, to take stronger action.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
Blake's supervisors ordered him to look for evidence of what happened to her, as talk of treason swirled around the MI6 headquarters.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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.
