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Heart or hearth?

heart is a noun meaning “A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be…”; hearth is a noun meaning “The place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) heart is about 162 times as common as hearth.

heartorhearth

What is the difference between heart and hearth?

hearthearth
Part of speechnoun, verbnoun
Meaning

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

informalTo be fond of. Often bracketed or abbreviated with a heart symbol

The place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a hearthstone and often…

A hearthstone, either as standalone or as the floor of an enclosed fireplace or oven

ExampleShe has a cold heartcooking on an open hearth
Formsheartshearths
Pronunciation/hɑːʔ/ /hɑːt//ˈhɑːθ/ [ˈhɑːθ] /ˈhɑɹθ/
In writing204 times per million words1.3 times per million words

Sources: heart and hearth in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of heart and hearth

heart

  1. 1

    noun A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion

  2. 2

    verb informalTo be fond of. Often bracketed or abbreviated with a heart symbol

  3. 3

    noun One's feelings and emotions, especially considered as part of one's character

    She has a cold heart

  4. 4

    verb To mark a comment, post, reply, etc., with the heart symbol (❤)

    She hearted my photos of the kids playing with the dogs

  5. 5

    noun 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

  6. 6

    verb To fill an interior with rubble, as a wall or a breakwater

  7. 7

    noun Compassion

    If she had any heart she'd forgive me

  8. 8

    verb To form a dense cluster of leaves, a heart, especially of lettuce or cabbage

hearth

  1. 1

    noun The place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination…

  2. 2

    noun A hearthstone, either as standalone or as the floor of an enclosed fireplace or oven

    cooking on an open hearth

  3. 3

    noun A fireplace: an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire may be built

  4. 4

    noun The lowest part of a metallurgical furnace

  5. 5

    noun A brazier, chafing dish, or firebox

  6. 6

    noun Home or family life

  7. 7

    noun A household or group in some forms of the modern pagan faith Heathenry

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, heart or hearth?

heart appears 204 times per million words; hearth 1.3 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words