eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for head

5 headwords match “head”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; heafod ranks first.

  1. 1

    heafod

    score 24

    noun, neuter · strong a-stem · 6 inflected forms

    head — head

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular hēafod
    genitive singular hēafdes
    dative singular hēafde
    accusative singular hēafod
    nominative plural hēafdu
    genitive plural hēafda
  2. 2

    coppe

    score 15

    noun, feminine · weak n-stem · 4 inflected forms

    head — head

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular coppe
    genitive singular coppan
    dative singular coppan
    accusative singular coppan
    nominative plural coppan
    genitive plural coppena
  3. 3

    hafela

    score 15

    noun, masculine · weak · 4 inflected forms

    head — head

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular hafela
    genitive singular hafelan
    dative singular hafelan
    accusative singular hafelan
    nominative plural hafelan
    genitive plural hafelena
  4. 4

    heafod-

    score 15

    prefix

    head — main; head, chief, principle

    • appears in the definition
    • listed as an English descendant
  5. 5

    heafodwærc

    score 12

    noun, masculine

    head — head pain, headache

    • opens the headword's definition

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “head” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “head”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0