Heartache
noun ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Emotional distress or pain, often caused by a loved one or their absence. countable, uncountable
"[…]: to dye, to ſleepe, / No more; and by a ſleepe, to ſay we end / The Heart-ake, and the thouſand Naturall ſhockes / That Fleſh is heyre too?"
- 2 intense sorrow caused by loss of a loved one (especially by death) wordnet
Example
More examples"And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can."
Etymology
From Middle English heorteece, heorte-ece, from Old English heorteċe, equivalent to heart + ache. Blends both literal and figurative aspects, as emotional distress sometimes includes a physical element of chest discomfort. Compare heartbreak § Etymology, where the literal aspect is lesser, though it still has a physiological basis.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.