heartbeat
Americannoun
-
heartbeats
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of heartbeat
Explanation
That regular thumping in your chest is your heartbeat, the relaxation and contraction of your heart's chambers that sends blood flowing through your body. You may notice your heartbeat after you've been exercising vigorously, or when something really scares you. It's the rhythmic pulse that can be heard through a stethoscope as your heart works to pump your blood. Figuratively, a heartbeat is also a brief, quick moment, as in "It was over in a heartbeat," or something vitally important, as in "She was the heartbeat of our Girl Scout troop." Heartbeat comes from the "repeated strike of a drum" sense of beat.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Gym rats can check their body composition of fat and muscle, people with heart issues can get their heartbeat captured, and mole owners can get their moles mapped to 0.1 mm.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026
Everyone in the room grabbed either shakers or a small drum, and with Densmore instructing and conducting, the ensemble conjured what he called the heartbeat of Mother Earth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
For blood pressure, experimental alarms use the familiar “lub-dub” of a heartbeat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
It helps control automatic processes essential for survival, including breathing, sleeping, heartbeat regulation and hunger.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026
By the time his heartbeat was back to normal, so was his skin.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
The native population in the Amazon thinks that because they are fluttering so fast with a thousand heartbeats per minute that they must have more than one life in them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
If left unchecked, dehydration can cause more serious complications, such as fainting and irregular heartbeats.
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2025
Getting another ablation procedure, which could help treat irregular heartbeats by destroying tissue that causes abnormal electrical signals, remains an option after the initial monitoring period.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2024
They said Mr Quiboloy was hiding in an underground bunker based on the sound of heartbeats detected by surveillance equipment.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2024
Celaena felt each of her heartbeats hammering in her veins as Nehemia wove through the crowd, her guards close behind—and halted in front of Celaena and Chaol.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
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