single-hearted
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
- single-heartedly adverb
- single-heartedness noun
Etymology
Origin of single-hearted
First recorded in 1570–80
Explanation
If your friend is single-hearted, she's the same person to everyone; she knows what she thinks, means what she says, and puts her whole self into whatever she does. And you are lucky to know her! Single-hearted is similar in meaning to wholehearted: The image it brings to mind is of the person's heart, or center, not being divided into parts. It's not split between conflicting loyalties or motives, not divided between thought and action, or between a secret inner self and the self shown to the world. Single-hearted people are not always second-guessing their ideas and plans — they make a decision and stick to it, set a goal and then go for it with all they've got.
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.
"Through this election we will fully display the might of the single-hearted unity of our army and people," said Hyon Byong-chol, chairman of a preparatory committee for one of the sub-districts in the election.
From BBC • Mar. 9, 2014
I must set Mr. Howard and Morton to work to find me some simple-minded, single-hearted individual, who will regard this undertaking in the same missionary spirit as the elder Wilson did.
From Home Influence A Tale for Mothers and Daughters by Aguilar, Grace
I have seen that single-hearted devotion in husbands before, and always in the nicest kind of men; but I have noticed that it does not invariably make the marriage a wild success.
From The Claw by Stockley, Cynthia
Utterly single-hearted, she lay there, brave and uncomplaining to the last, and seemed the only one unconscious of the pathos of her position.
From One Year Abroad by Howard, Blanche Willis
Probably few young men in the modern Babylon could have brought her such an unspent, single-hearted, ideal devotion; his love was hardly that of the nineteenth century.
From The Tree of Knowledge A Novel by Reynolds, Mrs. Baillie
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.
