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
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Favorable
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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.
“One of the most heartening parts of this past year for me has been the outpouring of support I’ve received from women,” she declared in the video.
From Slate • May 6, 2026
Some readers have asked for more on Chinese culture—a heartening request amid a widening East-West divide.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026
But representation, particularly these days, can be a radical act, and there’s something heartening at the sight of the Kim family enjoying their turn in the mainstream spotlight.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2026
That said, it was heartening to witness the first-ever Oscar for best casting, which went to “One Battle After Another” casting director Cassandra Kulukundis.
From Salon • Mar. 16, 2026
It was heartening, he said, that she would go to university in Igboland since she had lived her whole life in the west.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
