headshot

H4E1A1D2S1H4O1T1

noun

A portrait for branding or social media.

Less commonScrabble 15

Meanings

nounheadshot (plural headshots)

plural headshots

  1. A portrait for branding or social media.

    I went home, I changed, I went to Walgreens and printed out a headshot of me and signed it ‘from your favorite local news reporter,’ and I sat in the parking lot for four hours until she said, ‘Hey, your passes to go backstage are at will-call’.

    2023 November 6, Chris Willman, quoting Bryan West, “Gannett’s Taylor Swift Reporter, Revealed: Meet Bryan West, the First Full-Time Swiftie Journalist”, in Variety, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2024
  2. A gunshot to the head.

    Smelling victory amongst the gunpowder Graeme started shooting off his mouth. “True Counter-Strikers like me don’t even count kills unless they’re headshots or a knife in the back of the nut…”

    2004 April 28, Computer and Video Games, number 271, page 24
  3. A one-page, double-sided resume of an actor, consisting of the actor's photograph (usually of the head and shoulders) on one side and their curriculum vitae on the other.
verbheadshot (third-person singular simple present headshots, present participle headshotting, simple past and past participle headshotted)

present singular third person headshots · participle present headshotting · participle past headshotted · past headshotted

  1. slangtransitivevideo gamesTo kill (someone) by shooting them in the head.

    SCOUTMASTER / HEADSHOTTED A SCOUT WITH THE BREECHSHOT.

    2013, Doug Walsh, Gears of War: Judgment, collector’s edition, Indianapolis, Ind.: DK/BradyGames, →ISBN, page 336
    2 more examples

    Everybody knows someone who feels left out when video games are being played. Maybe your girlfriend is bad at headshotting newbs in “Halo 4” or racing against you in “Gran Turismo,” but she could definitely play this.

    2013 May 1, Matt Grippi, “Battleblock Theater is insane, hilarious fun”, in Daily 49er, volume LIX, number 601, Long Beach, Calif.: California State University, Long Beach, page 5, column 3

    Workplace bouts of Novalogic’s tactical firstperson shooter Delta Force 2 further seeded the sense that cover was neglected. “We all were playing that after work when we were having the debate about cover and first- or thirdperson,” [Chris] Esaki says. “I remember very vividly getting headshotted when I thought I was behind a piece of cover, but it was clear in the replay afterwards that my head was above the piece of stone. I couldn’t tell, and that was the reason why we went thirdperson with Kill Switch.”

    2015 December, Tristan Donovan, “The Making of… Kill Switch”, in Edge, number 286, →ISSN, page 97

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kap-?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*kap-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*káput
  4. Proto-Germanic*haubudą
  5. Old Englishhēafod
  6. Middle Englishheed
  7. Englishhead
  8. Englishshot
  9. Englishheadshot

From head + shot.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Afrikaans kopskoot
  • kopskootgunshot to the head
Chinese Cantonese 大頭相 /大头相, 大頭 /大头
  • 大頭相 /大头相 (daai⁶ tau⁴ soeng³)portrait
  • 大頭 /大头 (daai⁶ tau⁴)portrait
Chinese Mandarin 大頭照 /大头照, 爆頭 /爆头
  • 大頭照 /大头照 (dàtóuzhào)portrait
  • 爆頭 /爆头 (bàotóu)gunshot to the head
Dutch kopschot
  • kopschotgunshot to the head
Finnish pääosuma
  • pääosumagunshot to the head
French tir dans la tête
  • tir dans la têtegunshot to the head
German Kopfschuss
  • Kopfschussgunshot to the head
Hungarian fejlövés
  • fejlövésgunshot to the head
Japanese ヘッドショット
  • ヘッドショット (heddoshotto)gunshot to the head
Korean 헤드샷
  • 헤드샷 (hedeusyat)gunshot to the head
Polish headshot
  • headshotgunshot to the head
Portuguese tiro na cabeça m headshot
  • tiro na cabeça m headshotgunshot to the head
Russian вы́стрел в голову, хэдшот
  • вы́стрел в голову (výstrel v golovu)gunshot to the head
  • хэдшот (xɛdšot)gunshot to the head
Spanish ficha, foto fisonómica
  • fichaportrait
  • foto fisonómicaportrait
  • toma facialportrait
  • tiro a la cabezagunshot to the head
  • disparo capitalgunshot to the head
  • disparo cefálicogunshot to the head
Swedish porträttfoto, huvudskott
  • porträttfotoportrait
  • huvudskottgunshot to the head
Turkish headshot
  • headshotgunshot to the head
Cite this entry
APA

headshot. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headshot

MLA

“headshot.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headshot. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “headshot,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headshot.

Source: headshot on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.