phrasal verb · neutral

get one's head around

UK/ɡet wʌnz hed əˈraʊnd/US/ɡet wʌnz hɛd əˈraʊnd/get one's HEAD a·ROUND

speaking

to understand something that is surprising or confusing after thinking about it

Examples

It took me a while to get my head around the new timetable.

She still hasn’t got her head around why the company changed policy.

I can't quite get my head around how they solved that problem so fast.

Band 8 sentence

Although the theory sounded plausible, I couldn’t get my head around how the researchers had reached that conclusion without more data.

Collocations

  • get your head around + concept/idea/problem
  • finally/getting/getting to get your head around

Word family

get your head around (something) phrasal verbgetting your head around (something) gerundgot my head around simple past

Common mistakes

get head aroundget my/your/his/her/their head around

get one's headget one's head around (something)

Say it for a higher band

5understand6grasp7+get one's head around

Synonyms

grasp

wrap one's head around

Easily confused

get to grips with

It took the team a month to get to grips with the new software.

Related words

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In get …

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