heart-rending

adjective

1. causing great mental pain and sorrow

Other Word Forms

• heart-rendingly adverb

Example Sentences

That leaves IVF patients with the heart-rending decision of when to stop trying.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But the fourth episode is just as good — maybe even better — featuring a heart-rending turn from Tremarco as the mom trying to hold it together.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

"The violence in Nepal is heart-rending. I am anguished that many young people have lost their lives," Modi wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

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"It will not be an exaggeration to say that this heart-rending brutal crime was not just against Lakshmi, but it's a crime against humanity," Judge Choudhary said in his order.

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After being discovered by Lily Allen, the Chichester-born musician had massive success with his first album, thanks to the heart-rending ballad Another Love – which became one of the most-streamed songs of all time, with more than three billion plays on Spotify alone.

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Related Words

• appalling 
• awful 
• calamitous 
• cataclysmic 
• deadly 
• deplorable 
• destructive 
• dire 
• disastrous 
• dreadful 
• fatal 
• fateful 
• grievous 
• grim 
• harrowing 
• heartbreaking 
• miserable 
• painful 
• pathetic 
• pitiful