heartwarming
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of heartwarming
First recorded in 1895–1900; heart + warming ( def. )
Explanation
Heartwarming things move and inspire you. If you want to get a job writing greeting cards, you better learn how to write heartwarming messages. When you're sick, little gifts and offers of support from your friends can be heartwarming, and stories that end with lost dogs reunited with their families, or good people living happily ever, after are also heartwarming. The origin of this adjective is fairly obvious: it describes things that "warm," or give a feeling of affection and pleasure to, your heart. A related word is warm-hearted, which dates from the 16th century.
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.
Meanwhile, a woman in her 20s from Rasht, in northern Iran, observed acerbically: "Wow, very heartwarming that he didn't even appear on state TV to issue the message."
From BBC • Mar. 13, 2026
But the joy that little monkey feels for his orangutan, which he uses as shield, surrogate and playmate, is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 20, 2026
What began as a heartwarming Super Bowl commercial about finding a lost dog quickly turned into a flashpoint for privacy critics — and forced Amazon’s Ring to cancel a planned surveillance partnership.
From Salon • Feb. 14, 2026
They can be funny, sad, heartwarming, reflective, thought-provoking or surprising.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2026
They didn’t smile or nod or look approvingly at me in that heartwarming way teachers always do in made-for-TV movies when the troubled student has turned over a new leaf.
From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen
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.
