towhead

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   A person, usually a child, whose hair is very light, almost white, blond.

   Grammar: Mostly used of children and often in an affectionate or storybook way.

   Patterns

   • a towhead with something

   The little towhead ran across the yard in his bare feet.

   Every summer, the sun turned her into a towhead.

   He was a towhead as a boy, but his hair darkened with age.

2. 2nouncountablerare

   Hair that is very pale blond and looks like bleached straw.

   Grammar: Rare; describes the hair itself rather than the person.

   Her brother had a thick towhead that stood up in the wind.

   The photo showed a boy with a messy towhead.

   A bright towhead was visible across the crowded field.

Word forms

Common combinations

little towhead

The little towhead waved from the school bus.

a towhead as a child

My father was a towhead as a child.

blond towhead

A blond towhead peeked out from behind his mother.

sun-bleached towhead

The sun-bleached towhead splashed in the shallow water.

towhead with freckles

She was a towhead with freckles and a gap-toothed grin.

Synonyms and how they differ

blond

Blond is the standard, neutral word for fair hair, while towhead names a person and implies hair so pale it looks almost white.

flaxen-haired

Flaxen-haired is a literary adjective for pale yellow hair and not a noun for the person.

fair-haired child

Fair-haired child is more neutral and describes any light hair, not just the palest shade.

platinum blond

Platinum blond usually describes a deliberate dyed shade in adults, not natural childhood coloring.

Word family

towheaded adjective

having very pale blond hair

tow noun

coarse pale fibers of flax or hemp

head noun

the top part of the body

Commonly confused: towhead or tow?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “towhead”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words