• (RP) IPA: /hɑːt/
• (America) enPR: härt, IPA: /hɑɹt/

heart

1. (anatomy) A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
2. (uncountable) Emotions, kindness, moral effort, or spirit in general.

   The team lost, but they showed a lot of heart.

   • 2008, "Rights trampled in rush to deport immigrant workers," Quaker Action (magazine), vol. 89, no. 3, page 8:

     "We provided a lot of brains and a lot of heart to the response when it was needed," says Sandra Sanchez, director of AFSC's Immigrants' Voice Program in Des Moines.

   • Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. (Antoine de Saint Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943)
3. 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

4. Courage; courageous purpose; spirit.

   Synonyms: bravery, nerve, Thesaurus:courage

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 9”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     Eve, recovering heart, replied.

   • The expelled nations take heart, and when they fly from one country invade another.

5. Vigorous and efficient activity; power of fertile production; condition of the soil, whether good or bad.

   • That the spent earth may gather heart again.

6. (archaic) A term of affectionate or kindly and familiar address.

   Synonyms: honey, sugar, Thesaurus:sweetheart

   Listen, dear heart, we must go now.

   • c. 1596-99, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act V scene v:

     My King, my Jove, I speak to thee, my heart!

   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I scene ii:

     Awake, dear heart, awake. Thou hast slept well.
     Awake.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, pp. 9–10:

     Certain unscrupulous men may call upon you here in your dressing-room. They will lavish you with flowers, with compliments, with phials of Hungary water and methuselahs of the costliest champagne. You must be wary of such men, my hearts, they are not to be trusted.

7. Personality, disposition.

   a cold heart

8. (figurative) A wight or being.
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II scene i:

     […] I would outstare the sternest eyes that look, / Outbrave the heart most daring on earth, / Pluck the young sucking cubs from the she-bear, / Yea, mock the lion when he roars for prey, […]

9. A conventional shape or symbol used to represent the heart, love, or emotion: ♥ or sometimes <3.
10. A playing card of the suit hearts featuring one or more heart-shaped symbols.
11. (cartomancy) The twenty-fourth Lenormand card.
12. (figurative) The centre, essence, or core.

    Synonyms: crux, gist, Thesaurus:gist

    The wood at the heart of a tree is the oldest.

    Buddhists believe that suffering is right at the heart of all life.

• French: cœur
• German: Herz
• Italian: cuore
• Portuguese: coração
• Russian: се́рдце
• Spanish: corazón

• French: cœur
• German: Herzchen
• Italian: cuore
• Portuguese: amabilidade, bondade, generosidade
• Spanish: coraje

• French: cœur
• German: Herz
• Portuguese: coração
• Russian: се́рдце

• French: cœur
• German: Herz
• Italian: cuore
• Portuguese: coração
• Russian: се́рдце
• Spanish: corazón

• French: cœur
• German: Herz
• Italian: cuori
• Portuguese: copas
• Russian: че́рви
• Spanish: copa, corazón

• French: cœur
• German: Kern, Herz
• Italian: nocciolo
• Portuguese: cerne (ex: o cerne da questão / the core of the question)
• Russian: се́рдце
• Spanish: corazón

heart (hearts, present participle hearting; past and past participle hearted)

1. (transitive, humorous, informal) To be fond of. Often bracketed or abbreviated with a heart symbol. [from late 20th c.]

   Synonyms: love, less than three

   • 2001 April 6, Michael Baldwin, "The Heart Has Its Reasons", Commonweal

     We're but the sum of all our terrors until we heart the dove.

   • 2006, Susan Reinhardt, Bulldog doesn't have to rely on the kindness of strangers to draw attention ↗, Citizen-Times.com

     I guess at this point we were supposed to feel elated she'd come to her senses and decided she hearts dogs after all.

   • 2008 January 30, "Cheese in our time: Blur and Oasis to end feud with a Stilton", The Guardian (London)

     The further we delve into this "story", the more convinced we become of one thing: We heart the Goss.

   • 2008 July 25, "The Media Hearts Obama?", On The Media, National Public Radio
2. (transitive, obsolete) To give heart to; to hearten; to encourage.
   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     {...}}My cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason.

3. (transitive, masonry) To fill an interior with rubble, as a wall or a breakwater.
4. (intransitive, agriculture, botany) To form a dense cluster of leaves, a heart, especially of lettuce or cabbage.

1. Surname