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PlainSpell

heart

UK /hɑːt/noun, verb

heart is spelled H-E-A-R-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 204 times per million words in written English, the 494th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “hart vs heart” about 260 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, heart means “A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of heart is hearts.

How many letters and syllables are in heart?

Letters5: H-E-A-R-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing204 times per million words; the 494th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is heart?

Heart appears 204 times per million words in written English, the 494th most frequent word form in the list.

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

How do you pronounce heart?

  • British /hɑːʔ/
  • British /hɑːt/
  • UK /hɑːt/

Heart has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-heart.ogg, En-us-heart.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with heart

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

hart vs heart260 G
heart vs hearth0 B

Also written: hart.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with heart?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as heart from its last stressed vowel (/ɑt/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: earth, hater, rathe, rehat.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of heart

  • hearts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hearting participle, present
  • hearted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does heart mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

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

    She has a cold heart.

  3. 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. 4

    Compassion.

    If she had any heart she'd forgive me.

  5. 5

    Affection

    The chorus's singing won the hearts of the audience.

  6. 6

    Disposition

    They didn't take the remarks in good heart.

  7. 7

    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.

  8. 8

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

verb

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

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

    She hearted my photos of the kids playing with the dogs.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo give heart to; to hearten; to encourage.

  4. 4

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

  5. 5

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

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Heart in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcœur (an organ)
GermanHerz, Härz (als) (an organ), Herzchen (emotions or kindness)
Portuguesecoração (an organ), amabilidade, bondade, generosidade (emotions or kindness)
Spanishcorazón (an organ), coraje (emotions or kindness), copa (a suit of cards)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does heart come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after heart