- present tense form of headquarter (3rd person singular).
headquarters
Americannoun
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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.
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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.
Tens of thousands of people marched Sunday through the Belgian capital Brussels to the EU's headquarters to demand greater action to combat climate change ahead of a major UN summit.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
Fain, a former Chrysler plant electrician from Kokomo, Ind., had been a virtually unknown staffer at the union’s Detroit headquarters when he narrowly won the top job in a runoff election in 2023.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Several members of the guard were subsequently disarmed and placed under supervision at military headquarters.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
Two weeks later, the Fed’s inspector general reported on the central bank’s headquarters renovation.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
Billy Lee tended to Washington’s daily needs in a headquarters that had been the home of the president of Harvard.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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.
