HEAD-ON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does head-on mean? 

• HEAD-ON (adjective)
  The adjective HEAD-ON has 2 senses:

1. characterized by direct opposition

2. meeting front to front

  Familiarity information: HEAD-ON used as an adjective is rare.

• HEAD-ON (adverb)
  The adverb HEAD-ON has 2 senses:

1. in direct opposition; directly

2. with the front foremost

  Familiarity information: HEAD-ON used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEAD-ON (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by direct opposition

Context example:

a head-on confrontation

Similar:

hostile (characterized by enmity or ill will)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Meeting front to front

Synonyms:

frontal; head-on

Context example:

a head-on collision

Similar:

front (relating to or located in the front)

• HEAD-ON (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In direct opposition; directly

Context example:

we must meet the problem head-on

Sense 2

Meaning:

With the front foremost

Context example:

the cars collided head-on

 Context examples 

An international team of astronomers has discovered an ancient and dramatic head-on collision between the Milky Way and a smaller object, dubbed ‘the Sausage galaxy’.

(The Gaia Sausage: the major collision that changed the Milky Way, University of Cambridge)

You have hosted Saturn on your Sun in Capricorn since December 2017 and ever since, you have been beset with challenges that you calmly met head-on with your characteristic stoic sensibility and steadfast courage.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Using numerical simulations, they deduced that Hygiea’s spherical shape and large family of asteroids are likely the result of a major head-on collision with a large projectile of diameter between 75 and 150 km.

(ESO Telescope Reveals What Could be the Smallest Dwarf Planet Yet in the Solar System, ESO)

Astronomers are not sure whether they merely grazed each other or collided head-on, but either way it triggered a powerful eruption that launched other nearby protostars and hundreds of colossal streamers of gas and dust out into interstellar space at over 150 kilometers per second.

(Dramatic Stellar Fireworks of Star Birth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Astronomers are not sure whether they merely grazed each other or collided head-on, but either way it triggered a powerful eruption that launched other nearby protostars and hundreds of colossal streamers of gas and dust out into interstellar space at over 150 kilometres per second.

(ALMA Captures Dramatic Stellar Fireworks, ESO)

The head-on collision of the Sausage galaxy was a defining event in the early history of the Milky Way.

(The Gaia Sausage: the major collision that changed the Milky Way, University of Cambridge)