spearhead

[ speer-hed ]

See synonyms for: spearhead spearheaded spearheading on Thesaurus.com

noun

the sharp-pointed head that forms the piercing end of a spear.
any person, contingent, or force that leads an attack, undertaking, etc.: Cuba was the spearhead of the independence movement within Latin America.

verb (used with object)

to lead or initiate (an undertaking): She is spearheading an ambitious research project whose results may be used by NASA.

Origin of spearhead

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; see origin at spear¹, head

Other words for spearhead

3	lead, start, initiate, pioneer

See synonyms for spearhead on Thesaurus.com

Words Nearby spearhead

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use spearhead in a sentence

Boris Johnson, the UK’s prime minister since 2019 and the spearhead of the 2016 Brexit campaign, resigned today.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson has resigned | Cassie Werber | July 7, 2022 | Quartz
She did not spearhead initiatives to help mothers rejoin the world of work.
The New Right-Wing Idol: Working Moms | Tim Teeman | July 16, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Putin appears to be using elite commandos—Spetsnaz—to spearhead his stealth move into Crimea and, perhaps, beyond.
Russia's Special Ops Invasion of Ukraine Has Begun | Eli Lake, Anna Nemtsova | March 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Price runs his own MRM on-line magazine, The spearhead, which both compliments and competes with AV4M.
The Masculine Mystique | R. Tod Kelly | October 20, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
He will travel to Sanford this week to help spearhead protest rallies.
Sanford Mourns the Loss of Trayvon All Over Again | Jacqui Goddard | July 14, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST

Or helping spearhead the push for comprehensive immigration reform among American Christians.
First Ladies of the Church | Joshua DuBois | March 20, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
MacRae's seat, stone-marker, and aboriginal spearhead; the three lined up like the sights of a modern rifle.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair
See if you can strike off tiny flakes until the large flake looks like a spearhead.
The Later Cave-Men | Katharine Elizabeth Dopp
In the coffin were also a bronze spearhead and several weapons of flint—facts which all go to establish a remote date.
In Search Of Gravestones Old And Curious | W.T. (William Thomas) Vincent
On 4th June, 1915, in Gallipoli, you forced your way like a spearhead into and through line upon line of Turkish trenches.
The Seventh Manchesters | S. J. Wilson
The spearhead at the same rate would weigh about eighteen pounds twelve ounces.
The Bible: what it is | Charles Bradlaugh

British Dictionary definitions for spearhead

spearhead

/ (ˈspɪəˌhɛd) /

noun

the pointed head of a spear
the leading force in a military attack

any person or thing that leads or initiates an attack, a campaign, etc

verb

(tr) to lead or initiate (an attack, a campaign, etc)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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