hearth
/ˈhɑɹθ/noun
hearth is spelled H-E-A-R-T-H: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hearth means “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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hearth is hearths.
How many letters and syllables are in hearth?
| Letters | 6: H-E-A-R-T-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,367th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 hearth?
Hearth appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th 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 hearth?
- UK /ˈhɑːθ/
- UK [ˈhɑːθ]
- US /ˈhɑɹθ/
Hearth has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-hearth.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with hearth
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with hearth?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hearth from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹθ/):
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 hearth
- hearths plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hearth mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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 of reredos, fireplace, oven, smoke hood, or chimney.
- 2
A hearthstone, either as standalone or as the floor of an enclosed fireplace or oven.
cooking on an open hearth
- 3
A fireplace: an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire may be built.
- 4
The lowest part of a metallurgical furnace.
- 5
A brazier, chafing dish, or firebox.
- 6
Home or family life.
- 7
A household or group in some forms of the modern pagan faith Heathenry.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hearth in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | âtre, foyer , foyers |
| German | Feuerstelle, Herdboden, Grund, Kaminboden , Gestell n in einem Hochofen |
| Portuguese | lar, lareira , fogo |
| Spanish | solera, hornera, plaza , patria , crisol |
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 hearth come from?
From Middle English herth, herthe, from Old English heorþ, from Proto-West Germanic *herþ, from Proto-Germanic *herþaz, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“heat; fire”). Cognate with West Frisian hurd, Dutch haard, German Herd, Swedish härd. First attested in the Old English period. The modern spelling is from an Middle English/Early Modern English /hɛːrθ/, from earlier /heːrθ/, levelled from inflected forms with /rð/ where the vowel would have been lengthened. The reflex of this pronunciation was preserved in obsolete dialectal /ˈhɜɹθ/.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).