heart failure

noun

"heart-failure" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“heart failure” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The chronic inability of the heart to pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body, leading to a pooling of blood and shortness of breath.

Corpus desk

Index EN-heart-failure · heart failure · English

heart failure · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "H" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for heart failure
PropertyValue
Headwordheart failure
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “heart failure” in English

heart failurefalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

heart failure is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for heart failure in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is heart failure, spelled H-E-A-R-T- -F-A-I-L-U-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The chronic inability of the heart to pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body, leading to a pooling of blood and shortness of breath.
  2. 2
    The cessation of the heartbeat; cardiac arrest.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how heart failure appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Such is the vocal power of water bailiffs and farmers that their ‘Ois!’ can be projected at small boys from anything up to five miles away and still induce heart-failure.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "heart failure"?
"heart failure" is spelled H-E-A-R-T- -F-A-I-L-U-R-E.
What does "heart failure" mean?
As a noun, "heart failure" means: The chronic inability of the heart to pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body, leading to a pooling of blood and shortness of breath.
What language does "heart failure" come from?
"heart failure" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list