[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/headwind.html)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [dictionaries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/) / [The school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/) / headwind

[← H](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/H/)

# headwind

«headwind» in Mova's school dictionary: **A wind blowing straight towards you, against the way you…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a headwind, headwinds)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A wind blowing straight towards you, against the way you are going, which slows you down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/#m1)

2) (figurative) Something that makes progress harder: The business faced headwinds. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science and maths problems a headwind slows a plane, boat or cyclist: you subtract the wind's speed from the speed; a tailwind adds to it. Phrases: «a strong headwind», «into a headwind», «face headwinds».

### examples

- We cycled home into a strong headwind. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/#x1)
- The plane was late because of a headwind. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/#x2)
- A plane flies at 500 km/h; with a 50 km/h headwind its ground speed is 450 km/h. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/#x3)
- Runners hate a headwind in a race. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/#x4)
- The boat struggled against the headwind. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/#x5)
- The new shop faced headwinds when prices rose. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/#x6)

### note

One word. Opposite: tailwind (wind from behind, which helps). In maths: speed with headwind = own speed − wind speed; with tailwind = own speed + wind speed.

### In the corpora

- ["Headwinds" in business means problems that hurt sales.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/23-fees-bugs-and-spin/16/)
- ["Headwinds" in business means problems that hurt sales.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/42-olympiad-reading-between-the-lines/13/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «headwind» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/headwind/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.