To provide a high performance thermal head and a thermal printer capable of forming good print where streaks are reduced or eliminated.

In the thermal head where a plurality of heating elements 2 are arranged linearly, electrode wiring 3 is connected with the opposite ends of each heating element 2, adjacent heating elements and adjacent electrode wirings are separated by slits 4 and printing is performed while carrying a recording medium in the direction intersecting the arranging direction of the heating elements 2 perpendicularly, the slit 4 has a part 4a inclining against the carrying direction of the recording medium and a noninclining part 4b substantially parallel with the carrying direction of the recording medium. The inclining part 4a is arranged in a region on the downstream side of the heating element 2 in the carrying direction of the recording medium, and the noninclining part 4b is arranged in a region between adjacent heating elements 2.