HEADLAND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does headland mean? 

• HEADLAND (noun)
  The noun HEADLAND has 1 sense:

1. a natural elevation (especially a rocky one that juts out into the sea)

  Familiarity information: HEADLAND used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEADLAND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A natural elevation (especially a rocky one that juts out into the sea)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

foreland; head; headland; promontory

Hypernyms ("headland" is a kind of...):

elevation; natural elevation (a raised or elevated geological formation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "headland"):

mull (a term used in Scottish names of promontories)

point (a promontory extending out into a large body of water)

Instance hyponyms:

Cape Horn (a rocky headland belonging to Chile at the southernmost tip of South America (south of Tierra del Fuego))

Calpe; Gibraltar; Rock of Gibraltar (location of a colony of the United Kingdom on a limestone promontory at the southern tip of Spain; strategically important because it can control the entrance of ships into the Mediterranean; one of the Pillars of Hercules)

Cape Hatteras (a promontory on Hatteras Island off the Atlantic coast of North Carolina)

Cape Canaveral; Cape Kennedy (a sandy promontory (formerly Cape Kennedy) extending into the Atlantic Ocean from a barrier island off the eastern coast of Florida; the site of a NASA center for spaceflight)

Cape Sable (a promontory on the far southern part of Nova Scotia)

Abila; Abyla; Jebel Musa (a promontory in northern Morocco opposite the Rock of Gibraltar; one of the Pillars of Hercules)

 Context examples 

But, certes, Master Hawtayne, for all that my sight is none of the best, it is not the first time that I have seen that headland upon the left.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And now, if the gods be truly kind, we shall drift by that next headland and come upon a perfectly sheltered beach, where we may land without wetting our feet.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby, for it lies right over the town, and has a full view of the harbour and all up the bay to where the headland called Kettleness stretches out into the sea.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

From the windows of our little whitewashed house, which stood high upon a grassy headland, we looked down upon the whole sinister semi-circle of Mounts Bay, that old death trap of sailing vessels, with its fringe of black cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which innumerable seamen have met their end.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

See how yonder headland looms upon us through the mist!

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had seen a distant headland past the extreme edge of the promontory, and as we looked we could see grow the intervening coastline of what was evidently a deep cove.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Gin we were nigh a ship, or a port, or a headland, a fog fell on us and travelled wi' us, till when after it had lifted and we looked out, the deil a thing could we see.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The first and second headlands were directly in line with the south-west wind; but once around the second,—and we went perilously near,—we picked up the third headland, still in line with the wind and with the other two.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)