headway
1 Americannoun
-
forward movement; progress in a forward direction.
The ship's headway was slowed by the storm.
-
progress in general.
headway in a career.
-
rate of progress.
a slight headway against concerted opposition.
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the time interval or distance between two vehicles, as automobiles, ships, or railroad or subway cars, traveling in the same direction over the same route.
idioms
noun
noun
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motion in a forward direction
the vessel made no headway
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progress or rate of progress
he made no headway with the problem
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another name for headroom
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the distance or time between consecutive trains, buses, etc, on the same route
Etymology
Origin of headway1
First recorded in 1700–10; (a)head + way 1
Origin of headway2
Explanation
Headway is what you achieve when you move forward or make progress. When you're rowing a boat on a very windy day, it can be hard to make any headway. You can literally make headway, as when you move forward, fighting your way through an enormous crowd at a shopping mall or rock concert — and you can also make a more metaphorical kind of headway: "I have been trying to write this novel for three years, but I'm just not making any headway." The word meant "the main road" in the 14th and 15th centuries, and came to mean "motion forward" in the 1740s.
Vocabulary lists containing headway
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 1
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The Freedom Writers Diary
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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.
Meta may be in the early stages of rolling out AI products to consumers, said Anmuth, who sees “meaningful upside potential” as the company makes headway with the personal agent and frontier models.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
But the process has made little headway, with Israel questioning the role of the Lebanese army and disagreements over how compliance would be verified.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Pearl Jam protested the practices of Columbia House, and the bum deal it gave artists, but made little headway as the club boomed to 16 million members in the 1990s.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
The figures for the first four months of the fiscal year suggest that while it isn’t reducing its deficit as rapidly as hoped, the government has made some headway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
After we ate, I started clearing out the barn shed for a garage, but couldn’t make much headway for folks dropping by to see the automobile.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
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.
