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
Hope still has a heartbeat, but that grows fainter by the loss.
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
One gives rise to structures responsible for essential functions such as breathing and controlling the heartbeat.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026
I hardly heard her; that theme song synced up with my pounding heartbeat.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
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
Although extreme endurance events such as the Tour de France can cause temporary increases in daily heartbeats, Professor La Gerche notes that the health benefits of consistent, moderate exercise far outweigh any risks.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2025
If left unchecked, dehydration can cause more serious complications, such as fainting and irregular heartbeats.
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2025
After his two previous episodes of atrial flutter, Harbaugh underwent ablations, which are minimally invasive procedures that treat irregular heartbeats by destroying heart tissue that causes abnormal electrical signals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2024
Nor would you know that inches below your feet, frogs are sleeping, their heartbeats down to once or twice per minute.
From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
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.
