headmaster

English

Etymology

head +‎ master.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdˌmæstɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdˌmɑːstə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æstə(ɹ), -ɑːstə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: head‧mas‧ter

Noun

headmaster (plural headmasters, feminine headmistress)

1. (chiefly UK, Ireland) A male school principal.

Usage notes

The term is gender-specific, and refers to a male in the position. A female in the same role would be called a headmistress. In the United States, the shortened version of 'master' was used in few universities to refer to the faculty leader of a residential space regardless of gender.

Synonyms

• headteacher (UK, gender-neutral)
• principal (US, gender-neutral)

Translations

the most senior master in a school (male)

• Arabic: مُدِير m (mudīr)
• Bulgarian: директор (bg) m (direktor)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 校長／校长 (zh) (xiàozhǎng)

• Dutch: schoolhoofd (nl) n
• Finnish: rehtori (fi); johtajaopettaja
• French: directeur (fr) m, principal (fr) m (collège), proviseur (fr) m (lycée)
• German: Schulleiter (de) m
• Greek: διευθυντής (el) m (diefthyntís)
• Greenlandic: atuarfiit pisortaat, atuarfiup pisortaa
• Hebrew: מְנַהֵל m (menahél)
• Hungarian: igazgató (hu), iskolaigazgató (hu)
• Irish: uachtarán m, ardmháistir m
• Italian: preside (it) m
• Japanese: 校長 (ja) (こうちょう, kōchō)
• Korean: 교장(校長) (ko) (gyojang)
• Manx: ard-vainshtyr m, ard-ynseyder m, ard-er-ynsee m
• Polish: dyrektor (pl) m
• Portuguese: diretor (pt) m
• Romanian: director (ro) m
• Russian: дире́ктор (ru) m (diréktor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: директор m, равнатељ m

  Roman: director m, ravnatelj (sh) m

• Spanish: director (es)
• Swedish: rektor (sv) c
• Thai: ครูใหญ่ (th) (kruu-yài)
• Ukrainian: дире́ктор m (dyréktor)
• Vietnamese: hiệu trưởng (vi) (校長)
• Welsh: prifathro (cy) m

Anagrams

• headstream