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:
She still holds fond memories of that heady achievement, including chatting with her idol, Roger Federer, at the Wimbledon Champions Ball.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
It was a heady few days in which saltires and Scotland's striking salmon-pink away top were everywhere.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
From it, the court just inferred that it must recognize serious, heady limits on Congress’ power to spend the tax dollars it has collected.
From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026
Those are heady forecasts for a company that didn’t clear $5 billion of non-ad revenue last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
And so began her heady days full of cliche: she felt fully alive, her heart beat faster when he arrived at her door, and she viewed each morning like the unwrapping of a gift.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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
This is the type of movie that serves as an amuse-bouche to proper, headier dramas for the PG-13 crowd, and its bespoke accessibility is thoroughly appealing.
From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2026
Pulling in front of the AI pack—on its own terms—justifies Alphabet’s headier valuation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
It’s pressure because you can’t be playing at a higher level with a headier crowd of luminaries around you.
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2023
She had too, what is far headier, the wine of youth.
From The Paliser case by Saltus, Edgar
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
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
This week, some were back at home for the first time in months, bored, watching Netflix and sharing photographs on social media from their uprising’s headiest days.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 3, 2020
The headiest colt in time will learn the lesson of the breaking pen.
From Short Stories of the New America Interpreting the America of this age to high school boys and girls by Various
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.
