heart
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hahrtIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhɑɹt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
anatomy
A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
uncountable
One's feelings and emotions, especially considered as part of one's character.
The courage to carry on
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 conventional shape or symbol used to represent the heart, love, or emotion: ♥.
Emotional strength that allows one to continue in difficult situations; courage; spirit; a will to compete.
verb
transitive
To mark a comment, post, reply, etc., with the heart symbol (❤).
transitivehumorousinformal
To be fond of. Often bracketed or abbreviated with a heart symbol.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
Used this way, heart is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use heart
- “In your heart you know it is true.”noun
- “He stood still, his heart thumping wildly.”noun
- “He drew a heart and called it a valentine.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A form of whist in which players avoid winning tricks containing hearts or the queen of spades.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Lacking in feeling or pity or warmth.
With gusto and without reservation.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The rate at which the heart beats.
The rhythm of a beating heart.
A specialist in cardiology.
A specialist in cardiology.
Any surgical procedure involving the heart.
An intimate talk in private.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart.
Wildflower with heart-shaped leaves and broad yellow flower heads.
Erect California shrub having leaves with heart-shaped lobes at the base.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: muscular organ that pumps blood through the body
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.