headlinese

1 9.9

Short, simple language used in newspaper titles to save space

noun
/ˈhɛdˌlaɪniz/

Jargon

: titular

Many newspapers use headlinese to grab readers' attention quickly.

Examples

His writing struggled to break out of the terse patterns of headlinese.
What is headlinese?
Learning headlinese can help editors fit news into limited space.
The article was written in headlinese.
The article's title was written in headlinese, using just a few impactful words.
Journalists often use headlinese to grab the reader's attention with brief phrases.
The headlinese in today's news emphasized the main points in a concise manner.

Synonyms

journalese

vsheadlinese

Literature

1 8.5

A simple newspaper style that uses short sentences and tired phrases

is more tightly compressed, using very short words and omitted grammar

How Condensed

telegraphese

Archaic

1 9.9

headlinese

Jargon

1 9.9

newswriting

Literature

1 3.3

prose

63 3.1

Surface Forms

headlinese singular

headlineses plural

Morphology

headlinese = headline (transparent) = headline + ese

Formed by adding the productive suffix 'ese' meaning 'language or style of' to 'headline', so the meaning is directly inferred from the base.

Etymology

The word headlinese comes from headline plus the ending -ese, which means 'language' or 'style', as in Chinese or legalese. It names the short, tight way newspapers write headlines, using small words, cuts, and simple grammar, so you can think of it as the 'language of headlines'.