Home › Glossary › Letter H

Headland

Landscape
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A piece of high land projecting into the sea. It forms a prominent coastal edge or viewpoint.

Detailed Definition
A headland is a solid coastal promontory that thrusts into the sea and receives weather from several sides. In poetry, it offers drama and exposure: gulls wheel below, waves strike the base, and a watcher sees far along the coast. Its firm shape against moving water can symbolize resistance, isolation, or steadfastness. Yet erosion continually revises it, allowing a poem to set apparent permanence against the slow, abrasive work of tide and storm.
Example
Example in poetry:
“She stood on the headland where the wind tore at her coat,” uses headland for land projecting into the sea; A poet might write “waves broke white beneath the headland” to establish height and danger; “The headland divided one bay from another like a dark shoulder,” makes its shape visually clear; “From the headland, he watched the ship vanish into weather,” gives the speaker a lookout point
Additional Notes
A headland is a high projection of land extending into the sea, often marked by cliffs, wind, and expansive views. It can place a speaker at a physical and emotional edge, between land and open water. Compare promontory, cape, cliff, and inlet. Study hint: attend to direction and perspective: does the poem look outward toward danger, inward toward shelter, or down toward the shore?
Other Meanings of “Headland”
Also Known As
Cape Foreland Ness Point
Skip to main content