Meanings
comparative more coolheaded · superlative most coolheaded
- Having an even temper; calm and collected
The heated rhetoric masked a more coolheaded strategy.
1996 August 30, Jeffrey Felshman, “How to Win Enemies and Influence People”, in Chicago Reader2 more examples
There had been none among them coolheaded enough to reason out which trail he had likely taken, and thus look for him by the ford.
1921, Edison Marshall, “The Heart of Little Shikara”, in O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921Some essays are coolheaded, some shake with hysteria, some are memoirish, others didactic.
2007 March 25, Liesl Schillinger, “The Evolution of a City, in Words and Pictures”, in New York Times
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivemarked by calm self-control (especially in trying circumstances); unemotional
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From cool + headed, thus "having a cool head."
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
coolheaded. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coolheaded
“coolheaded.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coolheaded. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “coolheaded,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coolheaded.
Source: coolheaded on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.