heart.
A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
Meaning & usage
A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
One's feelings and emotions, especially considered as part of one's character.
She has a cold heart.
The seat of the affections or sensibilities, collectively or separately, as love, hate, joy, grief, courage, etc.; rarely, the seat of the understanding or will; usually in a good sense; personality.
a good, tender, loving, bad, hard, or selfish heart
Her heart was singing.
Compassion.
If she had any heart she'd forgive me.
Affection
The chorus's singing won the hearts of the audience.
Disposition
They didn't take the remarks in good heart.
Emotional strength that allows one to continue in difficult situations; courage; spirit; a will to compete.
The team lost, but they showed a lot of heart.
She put her whole heart into making a go of the business.
Vigorous and efficient activity; power of fertile production; condition of the soil, whether good or bad.
A term of affectionate or kindly and familiar address.
Listen, dear heart, we must go now.
Memory.
I know almost every Beatles song by heart.
A wight or being.
A conventional shape or symbol used to represent the heart, love, or emotion: ♥.
A playing card of the suit hearts featuring one or more heart-shaped symbols.
The twenty-fourth Lenormand card.
The centre, essence, or core.
That is the heart of the matter
The wood at the heart of a tree is the oldest.
The centre, essence, or core. The main fraction or product of a distillation run.
Where this word comes from
PIE word *ḱḗr Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd- Proto-Indo-European *ḱérd Proto-Germanic *hertô Proto-West Germanic *hertā Old English heorte Middle English herte English heart From Middle English harte, heorrte, hert, herte, hierte, hirte, horte, huerte, hurte, from Old English heorte (“heart”), from Proto-West Germanic *hertā, from Proto-Germanic *hertô (“heart”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr (“heart”), from *ḱerd- (“heart”). Doublet of cardia; see also core. Cognates Cognate with Scots hert (“heart”), Yola hart, hearth (“heart”), North Frisian hart, härt (“heart”), Saterland Frisian Haat (“heart”), West Frisian hert (“heart”), Dutch hart (“heart”), West Flemish erte (“heart”), Low German Hart, Hiärt (“heart”), Luxembourgish Häerz (“heart”), German Hertz, Herz, Herze (“heart”), Alemannic German Härz (“heart”), Central Franconian Hatz, Hätz (“heart”), Cimbrian hèertze, hèrtz (“heart”), Mòcheno hèrz (“heart”), Vilamovian haoc (“heart”), Yiddish האַרץ (harts), הערץ (herts, “heart”), Danish hierte, hjerte, hjærte (“heart”), Elfdalian järta (“heart”), Faroese and Icelandic hjarta (“heart”), Jutish jaart (“heart”), Norwegian Bokmål hjerte (“heart”), Norwegian Nynorsk hjarta, hjarte, hjerta, hjerte (“heart”), Swedish hjärta (“heart”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍄𐍉 (hairtō, “heart”); also Cornish kres (“centre, middle; waist”), Irish croí, croidhe (“heart; core; hub; sweetheart”), Manx cree (“heart”), Scottish Gaelic cridhe (“heart; courage; core; nucleus; sweetheart”), Welsh craidd (“centre, core, middle”), Latin cor (“heart”), Greek καρδιά (kardiá, “heart”), Albanian kërth (“askew”), Latgalian sirds (“heart”), Latvian sirde, sirds (“heart”), Lithuanian širdis (“heart”), Old Prussian seyr (“heart”), Belarusian сэ́рца (sérca, “heart”), Bulgarian сърце́ (sărcé, “heart; centre”), Czech and Slovak srdce (“heart”), Macedonian срце (srce, “heart”), Polish serce (“heart”), Russian се́рдце (sérdce, “heart”), Serbo-Croatian ср̏це, sȑce (“heart”), Slovene srce (“heart”), Ukrainian се́рце (sérce, “heart”), Armenian սիրտ (sirt, “heart”), Avestan 𐬰𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬛 (zərəd, “heart”), Baluchi زرد (zird, “heart; conscience”), Central Kurdish زر (zir, “heart”), Persian دل (del / dil, “heart; stomach; mind; courage”), Gurani زێڵ (zēł, “heart”), Northern Kurdish dil (“heart”), Ossetian зӕрдӕ (zærdæ, “heart; soul”), Pashto زړه (zrë, “heart”), Talysh dıl (“heart”), Zazaki zerri (“heart”), Hittite 𒆠𒅕 (ker), 𒊮𒅕 (ŠÀ-er, “heart”), Luwian 𒍝𒀀𒅈𒍝 (UZUzārza), 𔖪𔖱𔖪 (zārza, “heart”), Ashkun židi (“heart”), Kamkata-viri j̈arë, zërë (“heart”), Prasuni zër (“heart”), Tocharian A kri (“will”), Tocharian B *käryā- (“heart”), Sanskrit हृद् (hṛd, “heart; soul; breast, chest”). Most of the modern figurative senses (such as passion or compassion, spirit, inmost feelings, especially love, affection, and courage) were present in Old English. However, the meaning “center” dates from the early 14th century. The verb sense “to love” is from the 1977 I ❤ NY advertising campaign. Notes on spelling The spelling ⟨ear⟩ for /ɑː(ɹ)/ is paralleled by hearken and hearth, but is problematic since an Early Modern variant with /ɛːr/ can be posited for those words, but not heart. Perhaps it represents Middle Scots hart /hɛːrt/ (reflecting the Scots lengthening of /a/ before /r/ then a consonant, then the early actuation of the Great Vowel Shift in Scots) or a parallel development in Northern England. Alternatively, a back-spelling by speakers of dialects where preconsonantal /ɛːr/ was shortened early, allowing it to undergo the late Middle English lowering to /ar/ (reflected in forms such as larn "learn") is possible.
To be fond of. Often bracketed or abbreviated with a heart symbol.
To mark a comment, post, reply, etc., with the heart symbol (❤).
She hearted my photos of the kids playing with the dogs.
To give heart to; to hearten; to encourage.
To fill an interior with rubble, as a wall or a breakwater.
To form a dense cluster of leaves, a heart, especially of lettuce or cabbage.
Where this word comes from
PIE word *ḱḗr Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd- Proto-Indo-European *ḱérd Proto-Germanic *hertô Proto-West Germanic *hertā Old English heorte Middle English herte English heart From Middle English harte, heorrte, hert, herte, hierte, hirte, horte, huerte, hurte, from Old English heorte (“heart”), from Proto-West Germanic *hertā, from Proto-Germanic *hertô (“heart”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr (“heart”), from *ḱerd- (“heart”). Doublet of cardia; see also core. Cognates Cognate with Scots hert (“heart”), Yola hart, hearth (“heart”), North Frisian hart, härt (“heart”), Saterland Frisian Haat (“heart”), West Frisian hert (“heart”), Dutch hart (“heart”), West Flemish erte (“heart”), Low German Hart, Hiärt (“heart”), Luxembourgish Häerz (“heart”), German Hertz, Herz, Herze (“heart”), Alemannic German Härz (“heart”), Central Franconian Hatz, Hätz (“heart”), Cimbrian hèertze, hèrtz (“heart”), Mòcheno hèrz (“heart”), Vilamovian haoc (“heart”), Yiddish האַרץ (harts), הערץ (herts, “heart”), Danish hierte, hjerte, hjærte (“heart”), Elfdalian järta (“heart”), Faroese and Icelandic hjarta (“heart”), Jutish jaart (“heart”), Norwegian Bokmål hjerte (“heart”), Norwegian Nynorsk hjarta, hjarte, hjerta, hjerte (“heart”), Swedish hjärta (“heart”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍄𐍉 (hairtō, “heart”); also Cornish kres (“centre, middle; waist”), Irish croí, croidhe (“heart; core; hub; sweetheart”), Manx cree (“heart”), Scottish Gaelic cridhe (“heart; courage; core; nucleus; sweetheart”), Welsh craidd (“centre, core, middle”), Latin cor (“heart”), Greek καρδιά (kardiá, “heart”), Albanian kërth (“askew”), Latgalian sirds (“heart”), Latvian sirde, sirds (“heart”), Lithuanian širdis (“heart”), Old Prussian seyr (“heart”), Belarusian сэ́рца (sérca, “heart”), Bulgarian сърце́ (sărcé, “heart; centre”), Czech and Slovak srdce (“heart”), Macedonian срце (srce, “heart”), Polish serce (“heart”), Russian се́рдце (sérdce, “heart”), Serbo-Croatian ср̏це, sȑce (“heart”), Slovene srce (“heart”), Ukrainian се́рце (sérce, “heart”), Armenian սիրտ (sirt, “heart”), Avestan 𐬰𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬛 (zərəd, “heart”), Baluchi زرد (zird, “heart; conscience”), Central Kurdish زر (zir, “heart”), Persian دل (del / dil, “heart; stomach; mind; courage”), Gurani زێڵ (zēł, “heart”), Northern Kurdish dil (“heart”), Ossetian зӕрдӕ (zærdæ, “heart; soul”), Pashto زړه (zrë, “heart”), Talysh dıl (“heart”), Zazaki zerri (“heart”), Hittite 𒆠𒅕 (ker), 𒊮𒅕 (ŠÀ-er, “heart”), Luwian 𒍝𒀀𒅈𒍝 (UZUzārza), 𔖪𔖱𔖪 (zārza, “heart”), Ashkun židi (“heart”), Kamkata-viri j̈arë, zërë (“heart”), Prasuni zër (“heart”), Tocharian A kri (“will”), Tocharian B *käryā- (“heart”), Sanskrit हृद् (hṛd, “heart; soul; breast, chest”). Most of the modern figurative senses (such as passion or compassion, spirit, inmost feelings, especially love, affection, and courage) were present in Old English. However, the meaning “center” dates from the early 14th century. The verb sense “to love” is from the 1977 I ❤ NY advertising campaign. Notes on spelling The spelling ⟨ear⟩ for /ɑː(ɹ)/ is paralleled by hearken and hearth, but is problematic since an Early Modern variant with /ɛːr/ can be posited for those words, but not heart. Perhaps it represents Middle Scots hart /hɛːrt/ (reflecting the Scots lengthening of /a/ before /r/ then a consonant, then the early actuation of the Great Vowel Shift in Scots) or a parallel development in Northern England. Alternatively, a back-spelling by speakers of dialects where preconsonantal /ɛːr/ was shortened early, allowing it to undergo the late Middle English lowering to /ar/ (reflected in forms such as larn "learn") is possible.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.