headroom
/hˈɛdɹˌum/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.63 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The vertical clearance above someone's head, as in a tunnel, doorway etc; room (space) for one's head.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The vertical measurement, top to bottom, for example for clearance under a bridge.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The ability of a system to reproduce loud sounds free of distortion; dynamic headroom.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The distance between the actual performance of an algorithm and its maximum possible performance.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "With a rare and beautiful ease one can now ring up a boffin, as I did the other day, and say: "As a price for not opposing our Parliamentary Powers for a new marshalling yard, the Council at X demands that the bridge over X Lane shall have 16 ft. 6 in. headroom. This means steepening our gradient from 1 in 70 to 1 in 65 for half a mile on a 20-chain curve. What difference will this make to the loads of Type "2", "3" and "4" diesels please?". Back comes the answer."
- "The new bridge (6) gives headroom of 13ft at high tide, sufficient for present-day river traffic."
- "[…] the difference between signal-to-noise ratio and overload reserve (headroom) as well as noise (safety) margin (footroom)."
- "For whole pickles and fruit preserves, leave no less than ½ inch of headroom at the top of the jars […]"