Synonyms of head-to-head

head-to-head

adverb

ˈhed-tə-ˈhed 

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

• toe-to-toe
• one-on-one
• face-to-face
• head-on
• eyeball-to-eyeball
• mano a mano

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of head-to-head

Malawi scored and conceded four goals, Nigeria three, and Zambia two, leaving them still tied with head-to-head goal differentials of zero. — Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 6 Aug. 2026

Excluding the one pinpoint pass Maye completed against him in the two-minute drill, Gonzalez didn’t allow a catch and won all three head-to-head reps against Brown in a 2-on-2 red-zone period pitting receiver and cornerbacks. — Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 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

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

There is a dearth of head-to-head trials for different types of magnesium for neuropsychiatric disorders. — Maggie O'Neill, Verywell Health, 4 Aug. 2026

In fact, when put head-to-head, leg extensions beat out back squats for quad strength in particular. — Jenessa Connor, HEALTH, 3 Aug. 2026

The Phillies hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Padres. — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Aug. 2026

Two of the defending champions — Marist and Jefferson — will go head-to-head in Class 5A this year after Jefferson moved up one level during the GHSA’s most recent reclassification. — Chip Saye, AJC.com, 30 July 2026