Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for heart-rending. Search instead for rear-ending.
Synonyms

heart-rending

British  

adjective

  1. causing great mental pain and sorrow

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • heart-rendingly adverb

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.

That's a shame, as they contain some gems – not least All Alone, the heart-rending story of a young single mother whose life "never goes the way she may have wanted it to".

From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

Later, she would sob huge, sloppy, heart-rending tears asking why her parents wouldn’t come get her — had they forgotten her?

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 3, 2024

Since the early 1990s, Gilmour’s frequent lyrical collaborator has been wife Polly Sampson, whose sensitivity and topicality often reveals a heart-rending reality that’s never heavy-handed.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2024

But the two divinities of Earth knew heart-rending grief.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton