heartbroken
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of heartbroken
Explanation
To be heartbroken is to be so sad that it feels like your heart has cracked inside your chest. You’d be heartbroken after a death, but you can also be heartbroken when you get dumped by your girlfriend or boyfriend. Waaaaaa. When someone is heartbroken, they are deeply sorrowful or distressed. Feeling heartbroken about a tragic accident or disaster is an understandable response, and being heartbroken after a romantic breakup is basically inevitable. The word heartbroken has been used since the late 1500s, and it comes from heartbreak, which is rooted in the Old English heorte, "heart" and also "spirit" or "soul."
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.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was "heartbroken" by the deaths, and has asked New Yorkers to "take a moment to pray for the full recovery of those who were injured".
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
"The entire club is heartbroken," it wrote on Instagram.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
“This whole climate is horrible,” said Yolande Montagnac, a retiree who has lived for 45 years near the Gare de Lyon in Paris and was heartbroken by the damage to the city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
"We are beyond heartbroken to lose our beloved son and brother," Crawford wrote in a post on Instagram on behalf of her family, alongside a black-and-white photo of him.
From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026
He had hoped it would stay long enough for him to age properly into old enough, but it vanished without notice after two weeks, leaving too-young Bailey heartbroken.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
