head word

English Thesaurus

1. (grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent (noun.communication)

hypernym	:	word,
definition	:	a unit of language that native speakers can identify (noun.communication)

domain category	:	grammar,
definition	:	the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology (and sometimes also deals with semantics) (noun.cognition)

2. a content word that can be qualified by a modifier (noun.communication)

hypernym	:	content word, open-class word,
definition	:	a word to which an independent meaning can be assigned (noun.communication)

part meronym	:	phrase,
definition	:	an expression consisting of one or more words forming a grammatical constituent of a sentence (noun.communication)