behead

IPA/bɪˈhed/
KK[bɪhˈɛd]IPA/bɪˈhed/

behead — verb

  • beheadpresent simple I / you / we / they
  • beheadshe / she / it
  • beheadedpast simple
  • beheading-ing form

1. to remove a person's head from their body by cutting, especially as a legal puni

1.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to remove a person's head from their body by cutting, especially as a legal punishment or in a violent attack

Example

King Charles I was beheaded in front of the Banqueting House in London in 1649.

beheaded, in front of, Banqueting House — passive: beheaded + place + year

Wei read a book about the French Revolution, where nobles were beheaded by guillotine.

beheaded, by guillotine — passive: beheaded by instrument

Common collocations
  • be headed
  • be sentenced to be beheaded
  • be publicly beheaded
  • behead a prisoner
  • behead a traitor
Synonyms
  • decapitate

    more formal or technical; used in medicine, law, and forensic contexts

  • guillotine

    refers specifically to execution using a guillotine machine

  • execute

    broader meaning — to kill someone as a legal punishment by any method

Grammar Patterns

behead + person

be + beheaded

Usage Note

The passive voice (was/were beheaded) is very common because the focus is usually on the victim rather than the person carrying out the act. The active form is less frequent but appears in historical narratives.

Common Mistakes

The farmer beheaded the chicken.
The farmer cut off the chicken's head.
'Behead' is almost always used for humans, not animals.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Behead is the general, everyday word for cutting off a person's head, especially as a punishment. Decapitate is the more formal or technical equivalent, common in medical, legal, and forensic writing — a coroner would say 'the victim was decapitated,' not 'beheaded.' Guillotine is narrower: it describes execution specifically by the guillotine machine, a method used during the French Revolution. Execute is the broadest of the four — it means to kill someone as a legal sentence through any method (hanging, firing squad, electric chair, beheading). For example: 'The king ordered the executioner to behead the traitor.' 'The report stated that two bodies were decapitated in the train accident.' 'Nobels were guillotined in the main square.' 'The court decided to execute the prisoner at dawn.'

behead ↗decapitate ↗guillotine ↗execute ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • sentenced to be beheaded
  • condemned to be beheaded
  • beheaded in the square

Prepositions

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Behead comes from Old English beheafdian, a combination of the prefix be- (used here intensively) and heafod ('head'). The word literally meant 'to make headless.' It travelled through Middle English as bihefden before settling into the modern form behead.