as in toe-to-toe
in direct confrontation or competition
it's fitting that the two best teams during the regular season will go head-to-head for the championship
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Recent Examples of head-to-head
Sabalenka leads 2-1 in career head-to-head meetings with Osaka, who is making her first appearance in the fourth round in Paris.
—
Adam Zagoria, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
Then, Huang pivoted and introduced an all-new product line for Nvidia, putting it head-to-head with Intel and AMD in the Windows personal computer market.
—Zev Fima, CNBC, 1 June 2026
Over two regular-season meetings, Towns scored six points on 2-of-4 shooting with four turnovers when Wembanyama was the closest defender, according to the NBA’s head-to-head tracking data.
—Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News, 1 June 2026
Polls of that head-to-head matchup show Bass winning by 14 to 32 percentage points.
—Marc Novicoff, The Atlantic, 31 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for head-to-head
Adam Zagoria, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
Then, Huang pivoted and introduced an all-new product line for Nvidia, putting it head-to-head with Intel and AMD in the Windows personal computer market.
—Zev Fima, CNBC, 1 June 2026
Over two regular-season meetings, Towns scored six points on 2-of-4 shooting with four turnovers when Wembanyama was the closest defender, according to the NBA’s head-to-head tracking data.
—Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News, 1 June 2026
Polls of that head-to-head matchup show Bass winning by 14 to 32 percentage points.
—Marc Novicoff, The Atlantic, 31 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for head-to-head
Recent Examples of Synonyms for head-to-head
Adverb
-
For two months, the mother and son had almost zero face-to-face contact.—
Gregory Royal Pratt,
Chicago Tribune,
29 May 2026
-
In digital marketing, content creation and communication, the importance of face-to-face experience is not declining.—
Alana Sandel,
Forbes.com,
28 May 2026
Adverb
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Perkins, who is CEO of Canva, addressed head-on the concerns among many who work in creative industries about the potential for AI to supplant human labor.—
Cynthia Littleton,
Variety,
16 Apr. 2026
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Figures of Crisis makes productive use of this commonplace idea by tackling it head-on and turning it inside out.—
Ara H. Merjian,
ARTnews.com,
16 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Head-to-head.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/head-to-head. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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