heartening
Britishadjective
Explanation
Something heartening reassures or inspires you. You'll feel better after struggling with a long English essay when you read your teacher's heartening comments. If you're halfway through a marathon, the sight of your friends cheering you on is heartening. A shy new student will also find the warm welcome he gets from his classmates to be extremely heartening. This cheerful adjective comes from the verb hearten. "give confidence," or "encourage," which is rooted in a figurative sense of heart — to "give heart to" means "to give confidence to."
Vocabulary lists containing heartening
An Elephant in the Garden
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Favorable
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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.
Heartening as that may sound to a lot of us, we should know better than to take encouraging press-release copy at face value.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 31, 2022
Heartening to report that, while waiting for the stroke of 6, the people in line scrupulously observed social-distancing strictures, giving each other and their shopping carts wide berths.
From Washington Times • Apr. 5, 2020
Heartening to feel that our tribe of peace-lovers was so numerous and strong.
From Salon • Jun. 2, 2018
Heartening, because Santiago Calatrava’s soaring Oculus now teems with people.
From New York Times • Sep. 5, 2016
Heartening, also, was the comment of the helper working to patch up a gunwale smashed in transit.
From Down the Yellowstone by Freeman, Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
