masthead
Americannoun
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Also called flag. a statement printed in all issues of a newspaper, magazine, or the like, usually on the editorial page, giving the publication's name, the names of the owner and staff, etc.
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Also called nameplate. a line of type on the front page of a newspaper or the cover of a periodical giving the name of the publication.
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Nautical.
verb (used with object)
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to hoist a yard to the fullest extent.
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to hoist to the truck of a mast, as a flag.
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to send to the upper end of a mast as a punishment.
adjective
noun
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nautical
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the head of a mast
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( as modifier )
masthead sail
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Also called: flag. the name of a newspaper or periodical, its proprietors, staff, etc, printed in large type at the top of the front page
verb
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to send (a sailor) to the masthead as a punishment
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to raise (a sail) to the masthead
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mastheadsimple
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mastheadssimple
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have mastheadedperfect
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has mastheadedperfect
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am mastheadingprogressive
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are mastheadingprogressive
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is mastheadingprogressive
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have been mastheadingperfect progressive
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has been mastheadingperfect progressive
Past
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mastheadedsimple
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had mastheadedperfect
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was mastheadingprogressive
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were mastheadingprogressive
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had been mastheadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of masthead
Explanation
In publishing, a masthead is a list at the top of a page that includes the names of editors, writers, and owners, as well as the title of the newspaper or magazine. You'll usually find the masthead on one of the first few pages. In the UK, a masthead is slightly different: it's the title page, also known in the US as the "nameplate." American publications include editorial and ownership information on the masthead, while their British counterparts call this the "imprint." The sense of a masthead as the "top of a newspaper or magazine" comes from the word's original meaning, "top of a ship," from mast, "long pole that holds a ship's sail."
Vocabulary lists containing masthead
Journalism
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The Landry News
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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:
More than a year after he bought the Times, Soon-Shiong met with masthead editors, discussing the paper’s plans over Chinese takeout.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
And even if you can’t make the meetings, you’ll come to know your local paper’s masthead.
From Salon ● Dec. 3, 2025
A reminder of this can be seen in the top masthead of the Belfast Telegraph which informed readers of the black-out times to abide by.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2024
Gulban bought his first masthead, the Cook County News-Herald, in Minnesota in late 2020.
From Seattle Times ● May 3, 2024
But Ifemelu was full of sanguine expectations for The Small Redemptions of Lagos, with a dreamy photograph of an abandoned colonial house on its masthead.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The paper published nine editions and listed 17 reporters on its early mastheads.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 20, 2023
And Raphael Nash Thompson has an amusing scene, playing a bohemian painter who comes up with eccentric mock-ups of newspaper mastheads.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 27, 2023
He wrote: "Like other mastheads do every day, we simply asked questions and as standard practice included a deadline for a response."
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2022
Front office mastheads are swollen with key executives.
From New York Times ● Sep. 28, 2021
The last glow faded from the topmost pinnacles, the stars came out with the brightness of the desert, Morse signals winked from the mastheads, and the mooring lights cast reflections on the calm water.
From The Tale of a Trooper by Mackenzie, Clutha N. (Clutha Nantes)
That boy ought to be mastheaded, and I've told Perez so more'n once.
From Cap'n Eri by Lincoln, Joseph Crosby
In a trice, it would seem, her three topsails were mastheaded and the foretopsail laid to the mast.
From Doubloons—and the Girl by Forbes, John Maxwell
And in this stretch of ocean, lookouts were mastheaded at day-dawn and kept mastheaded until twilight of evening, when the Mary Turner was hove-to, to hold her position through the night.
From Michael, Brother of Jerry by London, Jack
Your yards stay mastheaded mostly by force o' habit, hey?
From Mr. Trunnell, Mate of the Ship "Pirate" by Hains, T. Jenkins (Thornton Jenkins)
Then came the order for the t'gallantsail, and by the time that was mastheaded, the skipper followed with orders for royals, fore and aft.
From Mr. Trunnell, Mate of the Ship "Pirate" by Hains, T. Jenkins (Thornton Jenkins)
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.
