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

She said: "I was clear that I wanted to build up that resilience and that is why I took those decisions to get that headroom up to £21.7bn."

Read more on BBC

He added the government had increased the headroom for the Treasury to meet the fiscal rules, which would creates "certainty and stability for business".

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Sterling rallied and gilt yields fell initially after the announcement as investors welcomed the increased fiscal headroom and the fact the budget contained no major surprises.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Gilt yields fell following the budget statement and news that the fiscal headroom had doubled to 22 billion pounds from nine billion pounds at the previous statement in March.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The chancellor is giving herself more headroom in her numbers – more space before breaking her self-imposed rules to reassure the markets.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

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