headroom

Or head room

[hed-room, -room]

noun

1. Nautical.,  the clear space between two decks.

2. Also called headway. 

   1. clear vertical space, as between the head and sill of a doorway, the ceiling and floor of a room, or the ceiling of a vehicular passageway and a vehicle roof, as to allow passage or comfortable occupancy.

      over 7.5 feet of headroom in the attic;

      a covered bridge with limited headroom.

   2. clear vertical space above one’s head, as in a vehicle or room.

      plenty of headroom for passengers.

3. Audio.,  dynamic headroom.

headroom

/ -ˌruːm, ˈhɛdˌrʊm /

noun

1. the height of a bridge, room, etc; clearance

Word History and Origins

Origin of headroom¹

First recorded in 1850–55; head + room

Example Sentences

However, in its last estimate in March, the OBR said the chancellor only had £10bn headroom to meet these rules, which it called a "very small margin".

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But she faces difficult fiscal decisions in the run-up to her budget, after the government watered down its planned welfare savings and largely reversed winter fuel allowance cuts - decisions which narrowed her budget headroom.

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She may choose to rebuild the so-called "headroom" to give her a better chance of meeting her self-imposed borrowing limits.

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The IMF reckons one assessment would "promote further policy stability" and potentially reduce the pressure on the government's buffer figure, which is often referred to as "headroom".

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In March 2025, the OBR projected that she had just £9.9bn of "headroom" against this rule, a very small amount of leeway given the size of overall government spending and borrowing.

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Related Words

• area 
• arena 
• capacity 
• distance 
• field 
• location 
• slot 
• spot 
• territory 
• zone