Definition of headnote in US English:

noun

• 1A note inserted at the head of an article, reported law case, or other document, summarizing or commenting on the content.

  Example sentences

  • ‘In an effort to unify the collection, Hansen provides a headnote to each of the pieces.’
  • ‘Forrest-Thomson's ‘Cordelia’ mentions him by name; Tuma's headnotes or footnotes note Prynne's influence on perhaps a dozen others.’
  • ‘The catchwords in the headnote say it all really.’
  • ‘Salter accounts for most of the music in the first headnote, with only Sherlock Holmes and The Voice of Terror written by Skinner.’
  • ‘It's all footnotes, random thoughts, tiny paragraphs, short sentences, more footnotes, some headnotes, and more random thoughts.’
  • ‘Wishing to be sensitive to this complexity, I have not imposed uniform terms in my headnotes or introductions.’
  • ‘This anthology of documents, along with extensive headnotes, has an ambitious purpose - indeed, more than one.’
  • ‘One sees that very clearly in the headnote at page 408, the first two holdings.’
  • ‘In fact, headnotes, sidebars, and chapter introductions do a lot more to separate the good cookbooks from the bad than recipes.’
  • ‘Since I had had my own doubts over ‘London’ I swallowed my scorn and sent off my preliminary selection: ten from Innocence, six from Experience, and three others, with headnotes and annotations on words not every kid might know.’
  • ‘We can see from this post, that I didn't: I simply read the headnote.’
  • ‘She does much the same thing, too, in her brief but lucid headnotes to the varied selections.’

  1. 1.1Law A summary of a decided case prefixed to the case report, setting out the principles behind the decision and an outline of the facts.
     Example sentences

     • ‘The majority decision on the question of the scope of the brokers duty is, I think, well summarised in the headnote to the report.’
     • ‘The relevant parts of the decision are, I think, accurately represented by the first two and fourth paragraphs of the headnote as follows.’
     • ‘It is sufficient to quote the summary of the decision which is given in the headnote in these terms.’
     • ‘The following summary of facts in that case is as they appear in the headnote of the unreported version, pp. 1-2.’
     • ‘I will not quote them verbatim, because they appear to me to be admirably and correctly encapsulated in paragraph 2 of the headnote to the report, which I do quote.’

     Synonyms

     summary, precis, synopsis, abstract, outline, summarization, summation

     View synonyms