heady
Americanadjective
-
intoxicating.
a heady wine.
-
affecting the mind or senses greatly.
heady perfume.
-
exciting; exhilarating.
the heady news of victory.
- Antonyms:
- disappointing, depressing
-
rashly impetuous.
heady conduct.
-
violent; destructive.
heady winds.
-
clever; shrewd.
a heady scheme to win the election.
adjective
-
(of alcoholic drink) intoxicating
-
strongly affecting the mind or senses; extremely exciting
-
rash; impetuous
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of heady
First recorded in 1350–1400, heady is from the Middle English word hevedy, hedy. See head, -y 1
Explanation
Something that's heady is extremely thrilling. You might have a heady feeling as you walk up on stage to get your high school diploma. Use the adjective heady to describe a sensation that is so exciting it makes you a little dizzy, a bit like being intoxicated. You could talk about the heady scent of your mom's rose garden or the heady feeling of winning the state spelling bee. The fourteenth century meaning of heady was "headstrong or impetuous," and it's sometimes still used in this way. By the 1570's, it had also come to mean "apt to go to the head," or "exhilarating."
Vocabulary lists containing heady
The Great Gatsby
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"The Wife of Bath's Tale," Vocabulary from the narrative poem
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The Bluest Eye
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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.
See Examples For:
What a heady honor to be considered for and asked to serve your country in a high-profile role.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026
Event founder Vanessa Fullerton-Batten said she wanted to let people enjoy "music that transports you back to those heady days of the '90s club dancefloors - but in the morning".
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
EA took shape as a decentralized movement during the heady, techno-optimistic days of the late 2000s and early 2010s -- when many believed social media and smartphones would promote empathy and democracy.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
The film itself is just as slippery and multi-layered, down to Lee’s heady admixture of documentary and dramatic aesthetics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
But beneath the heady perfume, there was another faint scent.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
They might have had headier dinner conversations with their parents than I did.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Nothing like the durable consolations of late-life romance, but headier, more exciting and, in the worst cases, far more damaging.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
Perhaps the film could have leaned more into being headier, more emotional, have more going on.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2023
Terrific on their own, the fries are headier following a dip in Laser Wolf’s tehina ketchup, charged in part with fermented mango.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 19, 2022
She had too, what is far headier, the wine of youth.
From The Paliser case by Edgar Saltus
Fox Corp. sat out the headiest days of the streaming boom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
“He’s one of the headiest baseball players I’ve ever been around,” said Roberts of Hernández.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2025
Reminiscent of the headiest days of Sundance, an all-night bidding war ended with Searchlight Pictures’ acquiring Jesse Eisenberg’s film “A Real Pain,” in which he stars opposite Kieran Culkin, for $10 million.
From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2024
It was one of the headiest plays of the day in the Kraken’s first scrimmage, one where Donskoi’s White team defeated the Blue team 5-1.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 25, 2021
He reads newspapers with a relish that is positively amazing; he smacks his lips over them; their contents are to him the headiest romance.
From Peeps at People by Robert Cortes Holliday
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
