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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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of head-to-head
Bennett, last year’s Conn Smythe Trophy winner as NHL playoff MVP, has gone head-to-head with McDavid in two consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, the Florida Panthers coming out on top both times.
—
Pierre Lebrun, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2026
Amazon and Walmart compete head-to-head for shoppers’ dollars.
—Bloomberg Wire, Dallas Morning News, 19 Feb. 2026
That meant Schumacher was competing head-to-head with Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who has dominated the sport and keeps setting new Olympic records.
—ABC News, 18 Feb. 2026
Next up for Benfica is the first leg of the playoff encounter with Los Merengues on Tuesday as the two teams once again go head-to-head in the Portuguese capital.
—Patrick Snell, CNN Money, 17 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for head-to-head
Pierre Lebrun, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2026
Amazon and Walmart compete head-to-head for shoppers’ dollars.
—Bloomberg Wire, Dallas Morning News, 19 Feb. 2026
That meant Schumacher was competing head-to-head with Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who has dominated the sport and keeps setting new Olympic records.
—ABC News, 18 Feb. 2026
Next up for Benfica is the first leg of the playoff encounter with Los Merengues on Tuesday as the two teams once again go head-to-head in the Portuguese capital.
—Patrick Snell, CNN Money, 17 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for head-to-head
Recent Examples of Synonyms for head-to-head
Adverb
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Keeping the camera still in a courthouse’s small, windowless chambers, Depardon depicts these face-to-face showdowns as litanies of misery, as the officials make suspects confront the grim circumstances leading to their arrests.—
Sheldon Pearce,
New Yorker,
20 Feb. 2026
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The idea of normalizing relations with Israel is wildly unpopular among Arabs — 8 in 10 consider Palestine a collective Arab cause — according to the annual survey by the Arab Center in Doha, which involved 40,000 face-to-face interviews across the region.—
Kelsey Warner,
semafor.com,
20 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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Ethan Hawke embraced politics head-on at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday ahead of the premiere of his latest movie, The Weight.—
Etan Vlessing,
HollywoodReporter,
17 Feb. 2026
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Two people were killed and a third person was seriously injured Monday afternoon following a head-on collision on Highway 49 in El Dorado County, officials said.—
Richard Ramos,
CBS News,
17 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Head-to-head.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/head-to-head. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.
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