forehead

forehead — noun

1. the area of skin and bone on the front of your head, sitting between your eyebro

1.nounA2
Definition

the area of skin and bone on the front of your head, sitting between your eyebrows and the line where your hair begins

Example

Mert wiped the sweat from his forehead after the long run in the park.

wiped sweat from forehead (after physical activity)

Antonia's forehead was sunburned because she forgot to wear a hat.

describing a state: be + sunburned / burned

Common collocations
  • wipe your forehead
  • touch your forehead
  • furrow your forehead
  • forehead scar
  • broad forehead
  • smooth forehead
  • beads of sweat on your forehead
Synonyms
  • brow

    more literary or poetic; often used in phrases like 'mop your brow' or 'furrow your brow'

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Forehead is the everyday word for the area of the face between the eyebrows and the hair. Brow is a more literary or poetic term for the same area, often used in fixed expressions like 'furrow your brow' (to frown), 'mop your brow' (to wipe sweat away), or 'raise an eyebrow' (to express surprise). Temple refers to the side of the forehead, above the cheekbone on each side — it is a smaller specific area, not a substitute for the whole forehead. In everyday speech, say 'I bumped my forehead' (not 'my brow' or 'my temple') unless you mean the specific side part.

forehead ↗browtemple ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • beads of sweat on the forehead
  • a furrowed forehead

Prepositions

  • on your forehead
  • across your forehead

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Forehead comes from Old English 'foran' (meaning 'before' or 'in front') and 'hēafod' (meaning 'head'). So the forehead is literally the 'front of the head'. The 'fore-' prefix still carries this meaning of 'front part' in other words like forearm and forefront.