head-to-head

adverb or adjective

ˈhed-tə-ˈhed 

: in a direct confrontation or encounter usually between individuals

teams competing head-to-head for the championship

Synonyms of head-to-head

• toe-to-toe
• one-on-one
• face-to-face
• head-on

Examples of head-to-head in a Sentence

it's fitting that the two best teams during the regular season will go head-to-head for the championship

Recent Examples on the Web

So the final decision came down to the number of goals scored in those head-to-head clashes. — Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 6 Aug. 2026

Malawi lost its final group match to Zambia 2-1 on Wednesday, but secured the group win with six points and a head-to-head tiebreaker over Nigeria, who also qualified for the knockouts. — Pj Green, Kansas City Star, 6 Aug. 2026

Bryant also beat starting edge rusher Dre’Mont Jones head-to-head in 1-on-1 pass rush, then seemed to battle Jacas to a draw. — Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 6 Aug. 2026

The same results appear in head-to-head testing, where models pretrained on clinical data outperformed general-purpose ones across most healthcare workflows. — Fawad Butt, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1841, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for head-to-head

• abovesaid
• aforesaid
• arrowhead
• casinghead
• copperhead
• figurehead
• fountainhead
• gingerbread
• hammerhead
• infrared
• leatherhead
• letterhead