Meanings
present singular third person heartens · participle present heartening · participle past heartened · past heartened
- transitiveTo give heart to; to encourage, urge on, cheer, give confidence to.
hearten the crowd
2 more examples
News of the recovery helped to hearten the family.
The soldiers were heartened by the general’s speech.
Synonyms: cheer up, happify, beatify, enrapture, begladden, blissen, bright, cheer · Antonyms: dishearten
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo give heart to; to encourage, urge on, cheer, give confidence to.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱerd-
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱérd
- Proto-Germanic*hertô
- Proto-West Germanic*hertā
- Old Englishheorte
- Middle Englishherte
- Englishheart
- Englishhearten
From heart + -en. Compare lose heart.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian насърчавам, окуражавам
- насърчавам (nasărčavam)to give heart to, to encourage
- окуражавам (okuražavam)to give heart to, to encourage
Dutch bemoedigen
- bemoedigento give heart to, to encourage
Esperanto kuraĝigi
- kuraĝigito give heart to, to encourage
Finnish kannustaa, rohkaista
- kannustaato give heart to, to encourage
- rohkaistato give heart to, to encourage
French encourager
- encouragerto give heart to, to encourage
German ermutigen
- ermutigento give heart to, to encourage
Hungarian bátorít, buzdít
- bátorítto give heart to, to encourage
- buzdítto give heart to, to encourage
Italian rincuorare, incoraggiare
- rincuorareto give heart to, to encourage
- incoraggiareto give heart to, to encourage
Portuguese animar
- animarto give heart to, to encourage
Russian воодушевля́ть, воодушеви́ть
- воодушевля́ть (vooduševljátʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
- воодушеви́ть (vooduševítʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
- вдохновля́ть (vdoxnovljátʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
- вдохнови́ть (vdoxnovítʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
- ободря́ть (obodrjátʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
- ободри́ть (obodrítʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
- подба́дривать (podbádrivatʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
- подбодря́ть (podbodrjátʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
- подбодри́ть (podbodrítʹ)to give heart to, to encourage
Spanish alentar, animar
- alentarto give heart to, to encourage
- animarto give heart to, to encourage
Swedish uppmuntra
- uppmuntrato give heart to, to encourage
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with hearten
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
hearten. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hearten
“hearten.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hearten. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hearten,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hearten.
Source: hearten on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.