heartbeat

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈhɑːrtˌbiːt/ UK /ˈhɑːtˌbiːt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a single pulsation of the heart; a moment or animating force

He would return home in a heartbeat if she asked.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a single pulsation of the... pulse pulsation throb beat

Word family

Related forms heart beat

Etymology

A compound of heart (Old English heorte, from Proto-Germanic *hertô) and beat (Old English bēatan, 'to strike').

heorte Old English *hertô Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# heartbeat

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈhɑːrtˌbiːt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈhɑːtˌbiːt/

## Meanings
1. a single pulsation of the heart; a moment or animating force

## Examples
- He would return home in a heartbeat if she asked.

## Synonyms
- pulse
- pulsation
- throb
- beat

## Related Forms
- heart
- beat

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: heorte
- Root: *hertô

## Etymology
A compound of heart (Old English heorte, from Proto-Germanic *hertô) and beat (Old English bēatan, 'to strike').

## AI Etymology
heartbeat is a compound of heart (Old English heorte, from Proto-Germanic *hertô) and beat (Old English bēatan, 'to strike'). Morphologically, the word is best read through the components named in the history, with the modern spelling preserving a compound structure rather than a single unanalyzable stem. In present English, the noun sense is "a single pulsation of the heart; a moment or animating force", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as heart and beat. Its semantic neighborhood includes pulse, pulsation, throb, and beat, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Old English heorte and Proto-Germanic *hertô.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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