rughead

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noun

A black person.

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Scrabble 12

Meanings

nounrughead (plural rugheads)

plural rugheads

  1. USethnicslangslurA black person.

    Rizzo opens the door and he's surrounded — I mean a sea of these kids, I'm talking about tough-looking rugheads.

    1993, S. A. Paolantonio, Frank Rizzo: The Last Big Man in Big City America, page 120
    2 more examples

    […] I don't get why you want to run around with all these rugheads anyway." I automatically sneak a look around. One of these days he's going to say something like that and some big black dude is going to be right there.

    2009, Bob Krech, Rebound, page 37

    Huffing and puffing on arrival, he immediately emphasized that he didn't want “no rugheads” taking care of him. By “rughead,” he meant black people inclusively—male and female. This constraint would create obvious problems.

    2015, William Henry Lewis, Doctor

    Synonyms: rug

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA black person.

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Origin

From rug + head, an allusion to curly hair.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

rughead. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rughead

MLA

“rughead.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rughead. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rughead,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rughead.

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