Skip to main content
to behead

to behead

50 7.4
Cut off the head of a person or animal to kill them
  • verb
  • /bɪˈhɛd/
  • Offensive
translation icon : decapitar
  • With a swift strike, Beowulf beheaded Grendel's mother, flooding her lair with cleansing holy light.
  • beheaded slaves
  • beheading videos
  • to behead one

And at that point, I understood that he was going to behead me.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • In 1649, Charles I, an anointed monarch, was publicly tried and beheaded by his own subjects.

  • The ancient warrior was beheaded in battle as a sign of bravery and sacrifice.

  • My own mother was beheaded when I was just 2 years old.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • The scene apparently shows a ruler about to behead a sacrificial victim.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Tower Green is where Anne Boleyn was beheaded.

  • She's the one who was beheaded by King Henry VIII.

  • Tower Green is where Anne Boleyn was beheaded during the reign of Henry VIII.

Synonyms

to decapitate
vsto behead
  • Offensive
53 7.9

Cut off the head of a person or animal

is narrower, applying to official human punishment rather than objects
to put to death
vsto behead
  • Offensive
46 7.6

To kill someone as a legal punishment

describes killing by cutting off the head as an execution method
to guillotine
vsto behead
  • NSFW
1 8.9

To kill someone by dropping a heavy angled blade on their neck

covers broader methods rather than only a specific machine
to decollate
vsto behead
  • NSFW
9.9

To cut off the head of a person or animal

emphasizes cutting off a head as an official form of execution

Antonyms

77 3.5

Decide not to hurt someone even though you could

How Violent

to dismember
  • Offensive
29 8.9
to behead
  • Offensive
50 7.4
to murder
  • NSFW
3.0
to kill
  • NSFW
1.0

Surface Forms

behead infinitive
beheaded past
beheaded past participle
beheading present participle
beheads third person singular

Morphology

behead = head (transparent) = be + head

Formed by the productive prefix 'be-' plus the noun 'head', making a verb whose meaning (remove or cut off the head) is directly inferable.

Etymology

Behead comes from be- + head, and it literally means to 'remove the head'. So it means to cut off someone's head, often as a punishment.