heartfelt

See also: heart-felt

English

WOTD – 13 June 2007

Alternative forms

• heart-felt

Etymology

From heart +‎ felt.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːt.fɛlt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːɹt.fɛlt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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Adjective

heartfelt (comparative more heartfelt, superlative most heartfelt)

1. Believed or felt deeply and sincerely.

   a heartfelt apology

   She expressed her heartfelt sympathies at the death of his mother.

   • 1820, William Hazlitt, “Lecture I. Introductory.”, in Lectures Chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth. […], London: Stodart and Steuart, […]; Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, →OCLC, page 2:

     [T]hey were not the spoiled children of affectation and refinement, but a bold, vigorous, independent race of thinkers, with prodigious strength and energy, with none but natural grace, and heartfelt unobtrusive delicacy.

   • 2022 November 19, Caryn James, “Spielberg’s The Fabelmans Review: An Emotional Crowd-pleaser”, in BBC‎:

     Infused with family warmth, but with a knowing adult eye on the loss of innocence, it is one of the year's most genuinely heartfelt films.

   • 2025 June 8, Jonathan Jurejko, “Alcaraz stuns Sinner in extraordinary French Open final”, in BBC‎:

     He fell flat on his back before Sinner trudged around the net for a warm, heartfelt embrace.

Synonyms

• genuine, sincere, true, hearty.

Derived terms

• heartfeltly
• heartfeltness
• unheartfelt

Translations

felt or believed deeply and sincerely

Bulgarian: прочувствен (bg) (pročuvstven), искрен (bg) (iskren) Catalan: cordial (ca), molt sentit Chinese: Mandarin: 由衷 (zh) (yóuzhōng), 衷心 (zh) (zhōngxīn) Esperanto: sincera (eo), elkora Finnish: sydämellinen (fi) French: sincère (fr) German: herzlich (de), von Herzen kommend, tief empfunden, innig (de), aufrecht (de) Greek: ειλικρινής (el) (eilikrinís) Hindi: दिली (hi) (dilī) Italian: sentito (it) m, sincero (it) m Japanese: 心からの (kokoro kara no) Maori: ngākau pono Norwegian: Bokmål: ektefølt Portuguese: sincero (pt) Russian: серде́чный (ru) (serdéčnyj), и́скренний (ru) (ískrennij) Scottish Gaelic: math dha-rìribh Spanish: sentido (es) Swedish: hjärtlig (sv), innerlig (sv)