Meaning & use
headteacher
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableBritish
The person with overall responsibility for running a school, including its staff and students.
Grammar: Countable, and may be capitalized before a name: Headteacher Mrs Shah.
Patterns
- the headteacher of somewhere
- a headteacher at somewhere
The headteacher welcomed the new students on the first day.
She was appointed headteacher of the primary school last year.
Parents asked to meet the headteacher about the new rules.
Word forms
| plural | headteachers |
|---|
Common combinations
- the headteacher's office
- He was sent to the headteacher's office.
- appoint a headteacher
- The governors will appoint a headteacher in spring.
- primary headteacher
- The primary headteacher runs the assembly.
- a new headteacher
- The school has a new headteacher this term.
- deputy headteacher
- The deputy headteacher covered during the trip.
Synonyms and how they differ
- principal
- Principal is the American term and is also used in some British independent schools.
- head
- Head is the shorter, everyday British form, as in the head of the school.
- headmaster
- Headmaster is an older term for a man, and is less used now because it names a gender.
- headmistress
- Headmistress is the older female form and is now less common than headteacher.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: headteacher or head teacher (two words)?
headteacher vs head teacher (two words)
Head teacher is an older spelling of the same word, and both are acceptable.
Practice
In British English, who is in overall charge of a school?
Choose one answer.
The headteacher leads the school, and American English calls this person the principal. The caretaker, librarian and nurse have other duties.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “headteacher”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.