Showing results for "heading"

• present participle of head.

heading

American  

[hed-ing] / ˈhɛd ɪŋ /

noun

• headings
  plural

1. something that serves as a head, top, or front.

2. a title or caption of a page, chapter, etc.

3. a section of the subject of a discourse; a main division of a topic or theme.

4. the compass direction toward which a traveler or vehicle is or should be moving; course.

5. an active underground mining excavation in the earth, as a drift or raise being or about to be driven.

6. Aeronautics. the angle between the axis from front to rear of an aircraft and some reference line, as magnetic north.

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heading British  

/ ˈhɛdɪŋ /

noun

1. a title for a page, paragraph, chapter, etc

2. a main division, as of a lecture, speech, essay, etc

3. mining

   1. a horizontal tunnel

   2. the end of such a tunnel

4. the angle between the direction of an aircraft and a specified meridian, often due north

5. the compass direction parallel to the keel of a vessel

6. the act of heading

7. anything that serves as a head

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonheading
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• headings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of heading

First recorded in 1250–1300, heading is from the Middle English word hefding. See head, -ing ¹

Explanation

A heading is a word, phrase, or sentence at the beginning of a written passage that explains what it's about. A heading is very similar to a title. A heading is similar to a caption, a line below a photograph that briefly explains it. Headings show up at the top of paragraphs, chapters, or pages, and they give you an idea of what the subject is. You might write a heading for each chapter of your novel, or on each page of your French club newsletter. The 1300's meaning of heading was "beheading," and it wasn't until the late 1800's that it came to mean "title."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

heading headings

The "Dubai Tower" left the eastern port city of Ningbo on Saturday evening heading north, where it will pass through the Bering Strait, then turn west through the frigid waters along Russia's northern coast.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

Triple-A manager Ben Johnson saw the first two homers live with some of his players before heading out to the field for batting practice.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

The film feels spooky in its prescience, but Ferrell and McKay were far from alone in noticing the culture was heading out of the cities.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

But Monday morning this week, with only 142 miles remaining, Greybeard announced he was heading home for rest in Tennessee.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

It’s a Monday, but schools and stores are closed for the celebration, so everyone in the neighborhood is heading to the parade—Greek, Armenian, and Muslim families, along with a few Spanish Jewish families like ours.

From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar

The writer, thanks to their ability to improve page rankings via keywords and section headings, will have created an article that looks like information but is really a thinly disguised advertisement.

From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2026

Some changes are as simple as removing numbered lines and leaving blank space under headings like “Sources of support.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2025

The book ricochets back and forth in time, with such section headings as “Twelve Days Before the Robbery” and “Thirteen Years Earlier.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025

Most of these counterfeit documents, however, are easy to spot because they clearly diverge from official formatting - showing erroneous spacing and letter headings, or containing significant grammatical or spelling errors.

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2024

"For the purpose of convenience,” he began pompously, "I have divided my talk tonight into thirty main headings and one hundred and seventeen sub-headings. I will commence with the first main heading...”

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Related Words

• route