Chief vs. Head — What's the Difference?

A leader or ruler of a people or clan.

The forefront or leading position in a trend or movement.

The highest in rank or authority.

The source or origin of a river or stream.

A main or primary part of something.

The head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste, respectively. Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do, regardless of size.

A leader or ruler of a people or clan

The upper part of the human body, or the front or upper part of the body of an animal, typically separated from the rest of the body by a neck, and containing the brain, mouth, and sense organs.

An ordinary consisting of a broad horizontal band across the top of the shield.

A thing resembling a head either in form or in relation to a whole.

Most important

The front, forward, or upper part or end of something.

One who is highest in rank or authority; a leader.

A person in charge of something; a director or leader

A chief petty officer.

A person considered as a numerical unit

(Nautical) The chief engineer of a ship.

A component in an audio, video, or information system by which information is transferred from an electrical signal to the recording medium, or vice versa.

(Slang) A supervisor; a boss.

A body of water kept at a particular height in order to provide a supply at sufficient pressure

(Heraldry) The upper section of a shield.

A toilet on a ship or boat

Highest in rank, authority, or office

The word that governs all the other words in a phrase in which it is used, having the same grammatical function as the whole phrase.

Most important or influential

A superficial deposit of rock fragments, formed at the edge of an ice sheet by repeated freezing and thawing and then moved downhill.

A leader or head of a group of people, organisation, etc.

A group of pheasants

(heraldry) The top part of a shield or escutcheon; more specifically, an ordinary consisting of the upper part of the field cut off by a horizontal line, generally occupying the top third.

Chief; principal

The principal part or top of anything.

Be in the leading position on

An informal term of address.

Give a title or caption to

An informal term of address for a Native American or First Nations man.

Move in a specified direction

Primary; principal.

Shoot or pass (the ball) with the head

(Scotland) Intimate, friendly.

Lop off the upper part or branches of (a plant or tree)

To smoke cannabis.

(of a lettuce or cabbage) form a head.

The head or leader of any body of men; a commander, as of an army; a head man, as of a tribe, clan, or family; a person in authority who directs the work of others; the principal actor or agent.

The uppermost or forwardmost part of the body of a vertebrate, containing the brain and the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and jaws.

The principal part; the most valuable portion.

The analogous part of an invertebrate organism.

The upper third part of the field. It is supposed to be composed of the dexter, sinister, and middle chiefs.

The length or height of such a part

Highest in office or rank; principal; head.

The seat of the faculty of reason; intelligence, intellect, or mind

Principal or most eminent in any quality or action; most distinguished; having most influence; taking the lead; most important; as, the chief topic of conversation; the chief interest of man.

Mental ability or aptitude

Very intimate, near, or close.

Freedom of choice or action

A person who is in charge;

A habitual drug user. Often used in combination

A person who exercises control over workers;

An enthusiast. Often used in combination

Most important element;

A person considered foolish or contemptible. Often used in combination

Most important.

A portrait or representation of a person's head.

A title given to someone leading particular groups.

Often heads (used with a sing. verb) The side of a coin having the principal design, often the profile of a political leader's head.

(Informal) A headache

An individual; a person

Pl. head A single animal

A person who leads, rules, or is in charge; a leader, chief, or director

A headmaster or headmistress.

The foremost or leading position

A headwaiter.

The difference in depth of a liquid at two given points.

The measure of pressure at the lower point expressed in terms of this difference.

The pressure exerted by a liquid or gas

The liquid or gas exerting the pressure.

The froth or foam that rises to the top in pouring an effervescent liquid, such as beer.

The tip of an abscess, boil, or pimple, in which pus forms.

A turning point; a crisis

A projection, weight, or fixture at the end of an elongated object

The working end of a tool or implement

The looped part at the end a lacrosse stick, to which the webbing is attached.

The part of an explosive device that carries the explosive; a warhead.

The part of a stringed instrument where the strings are wound; a tuning head.

A tuning machine.

The rounded proximal end of a long bone

The end of a muscle that is attached to the less movable part of the skeleton.

An attachment to or part of a machine that holds or contains the operative device.

The magnetic head of a tape recorder or VCR.

The device in a magnetic disk or tape drive that enables it to read data from and write data to the disk or tape.

A rounded compact mass, as of leaves or buds

(Botany) A flower head.

The uppermost part; the top

The end considered the most important

Either end of an object, such as a drum, whose two ends are interchangeable.

The forward part of a vessel.

The top part or upper edge of a sail.

A toilet, especially on a ship.

A passage or gallery in a coal mine.

The top of a book or page.

A headline or heading.

A distinct topic or category

Headway; progress.

(Linguistics) The word determining the grammatical category of a constituent, often establishing relations of concord or agreement (such as subject-verb agreement) with other constituents.

Vulgar Slang Oral sex.

Of, relating to, or intended for the head. Often used in combination

Foremost in rank or importance

Placed at the top or the front

(Slang) Of, relating to, or for drugs or drug users.

To be in charge of; lead

To be in the first or foremost position of

To aim, point, or turn in a certain direction

To remove the head or top of.

(Sports) To hit (a soccer ball) in the air with one's head.

To provide with a head

To proceed or go in a certain direction

To form a head, as lettuce or cabbage.

To originate, as a stream or river; rise.

(countable) The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth, and main sense organs.

(people) To do with heads.

(animals) To do with heads.

(countable) The topmost, foremost, or leading part.

The end of a table.

(countable) The principal operative part of a machine or tool.

The foam that forms on top of beer or other carbonated beverages.

(engineering) The end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel.

(coopering) The end cap of a cask or other barrel.

(geology) The uppermost part of a valley.

Deposits near the top of a geological succession.

(journalism) headline

(medicine) The end of an abscess where pus collects.

(music) The headstock of a guitar.

(nautical) A leading component.

(British) A headland.

A leader or expert.

The place of honour, or of command; the most important or foremost position; the front.

(metonymy) Leader; chief; mastermind.

(metonymy) A headmaster or headmistress.

A person with an extensive knowledge of hip hop.

A significant or important part.

A beginning or end, a protuberance.

A component.

Headway; progress.

Topic; subject.

Denouement; crisis.

(fluid dynamics) Pressure and energy.

A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure head.

The difference in elevation between two points in a column of fluid, and the resulting pressure of the fluid at the lower point.

More generally, energy in a mass of fluid divided by its weight.

Fellatio or cunnilingus; oral sex.

(slang) The glans penis.

A heavy or habitual user of illicit drugs.

(obsolete) Power; armed force.

Of, relating to, or intended for the head.

Foremost in rank or importance.

Placed at the top or the front.

Coming from in front.

(transitive) To be in command of. (See also head up.)

(transitive) To come at the beginning or front of; to commence.

(transitive) To strike with the head; as in soccer, to head the ball

(intransitive) To move in a specified direction.

(fishing) To remove the head from a fish.

(intransitive) To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.

(intransitive) To form a head.

(transitive) To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head.

(transitive) To cut off the top of; to lop off.

To behead; to decapitate.

To go in front of.

To get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose.

(by extension) To check or restrain.

To set on the head.

The anterior or superior part of an animal, containing the brain, or chief ganglia of the nervous system, the mouth, and in the higher animals, the chief sensory organs; poll; cephalon.

The uppermost, foremost, or most important part of an inanimate object; such a part as may be considered to resemble the head of an animal; often, also, the larger, thicker, or heavier part or extremity, in distinction from the smaller or thinner part, or from the point or edge; as, the head of a cane, a nail, a spear, an ax, a mast, a sail, a ship; that which covers and closes the top or the end of a hollow vessel; as, the head of a cask or a steam boiler.

The place where the head should go; as, the head of a bed, of a grave, etc.; the head of a carriage, that is, the hood which covers the head.

The most prominent or important member of any organized body; the chief; the leader; as, the head of a college, a school, a church, a state, and the like.

The place or honor, or of command; the most important or foremost position; the front; as, the head of the table; the head of a column of soldiers.

Each one among many; an individual; - often used in a plural sense; as, a thousand head of cattle.

The seat of the intellect; the brain; the understanding; the mental faculties; as, a good head, that is, a good mind; it never entered his head, it did not occur to him; of his own head, of his own thought or will.

The source, fountain, spring, or beginning, as of a stream or river; as, the head of the Nile; hence, the altitude of the source, or the height of the surface, as of water, above a given place, as above an orifice at which it issues, and the pressure resulting from the height or from motion; sometimes also, the quantity in reserve; as, a mill or reservoir has a good head of water, or ten feet head; also, that part of a gulf or bay most remote from the outlet or the sea.

A headland; a promontory; as, Gay Head.

A separate part, or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon.

Culminating point or crisis; hence, strength; force; height.

Power; armed force.

A headdress; a covering of the head; as, a laced head; a head of hair.

An ear of wheat, barley, or of one of the other small cereals.

A dense cluster of flowers, as in clover, daisies, thistles; a capitulum.

The antlers of a deer.

A rounded mass of foam which rises on a pot of beer or other effervescing liquor.

Tiles laid at the eaves of a house.

Principal; chief; leading; first; as, the head master of a school; the head man of a tribe; a head chorister; a head cook.

To be at the head of; to put one's self at the head of; to lead; to direct; to act as leader to; as, to head an army, an expedition, or a riot.

To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head; as, to head a nail.

To behead; to decapitate.

To cut off the top of; to lop off; as, to head trees.

To go in front of; to get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose; hence, to check or restrain; as, to head a drove of cattle; to head a person; the wind heads a ship.

To set on the head; as, to head a cask.

To originate; to spring; to have its source, as a river.

To go or point in a certain direction; to tend; as, how does the ship head?

To form a head; as, this kind of cabbage heads early.

The upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains;

A single domestic animal;

That which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason;

A person who is in charge;

The front of a military formation or procession;

The pressure exerted by a fluid;

The top of something;

The source of water from which a stream arises;

(grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent

The tip of an abscess (where the pus accumulates)

The length or height based on the size of a human or animal head;

A dense clusters of flowers or foliage;

The educator who has executive authority for a school;

An individual person;

A user of (usually soft) drugs;

A rounded compact mass;

The foam or froth that accumulates at the top when you pour an effervescent liquid into a container;

The part in the front or nearest the viewer;

A difficult juncture;

Forward movement;

A V-shaped mark at one end of an arrow pointer;

The subject matter at issue;

A line of text serving to indicate what the passage below it is about;

The rounded end of a bone that bits into a rounded cavity in another bone to form a joint;

That part of a skeletal muscle that is away from the bone that it moves

(computer science) a tiny electromagnetic coil and metal pole used to write and read magnetic patterns on a disk

(usually plural) an obverse side of a coin that bears the representation of a person's head;

The striking part of a tool;

(nautical) a toilet on board a boat or ship

A projection out from one end;

A membrane that is stretched taut over a drum

Oral-genital stimulation;

To go or travel towards;

Be in charge of;

Travel in front of; go in advance of others;

Be the first or leading member of (a group) and excel;

Direct the course; determine the direction of travelling

Take its rise;

Be in the front of or on top of;

Form a head or come or grow to a head;

Remove the head of;

The leader or principal of a group or organization.

The upper part of the human body or the front part of an animal.

A culmination or climax of a sequence or process.

A "school head" often leads the entire school, while a "chief academic officer" focuses on academic affairs.

Yes, "head" often refers to the top part of the human body.

It can denote the primary person, e.g., "chief witness."

Yes, as in "coming to a head," meaning reaching a critical point.

Often, but not always. Chief signifies primary authority, but context matters.

Yes, e.g., "chief reason," meaning the main reason.

"Head of the household" refers to the primary responsible person in a home.

Yes, "head" can mean direction, e.g., "head north."

In some contexts, they can be, but they have distinct connotations.

Yes, e.g., "chief ingredient," where it means primary or main.

Yes, such as "head of a river" to denote its source.

Yes, e.g., "ahead by a head" in horse racing, indicating a small lead.

Head has broader applications, from leadership roles to body parts and geographical points.

No, while used for tribal leaders, it's also used in many other contexts.

Chief Justice is the standard and more formal title.