sweetheart
Americannoun
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either of a pair of lovers in relation to the other.
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(sometimes initial capital letter) an affectionate or familiar term of address.
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a beloved person.
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Informal. a generous, friendly person.
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Informal. anything that arouses loyal affection.
My old car was a real sweetheart.
noun
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a person loved by another
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informal a lovable, generous, or obliging person
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a term of endearment for a beloved or lovable person
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sweetheart
First recorded in 1250–1300, sweetheart is from Middle English swete herte. See sweet, heart
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:
Haaland's girlfriend is childhood sweetheart Isabel Haugseng Johansen.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Going back to that game in New Jersey last week, Aston Villa captain and Tartan Army sweetheart John McGinn was the one to start on the bench.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
He married his college sweetheart, with whom he would have triplet sons, and joined Exxon as a research engineer in Tulsa, Okla., in 1963.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Grande was previously married to real estate agent Dalton Gomez, while Slater had been married to psychologist Lilly Jay, his high-school sweetheart with whom he shares a child.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
Salvador had taken notice of several girls in town but slender, big-eyed Dorotea Ortega was the one he’d claimed as his sweetheart.
From "Lupita Mañana" by Patricia Beatty
People also meet their sweethearts in college or at jobs that require similar qualifications.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 14, 2026
"It's here that we still meet our sweethearts, that we swap our numbers scribbled on little bits of paper," says fisherman Paulin Agbokounou.
From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026
Those primitive sweethearts couldn’t imagine the need for a shepherd to steer every step of their relationship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2025
It has earned the romantically-named village worldwide fame, with sweethearts from every continent - even Antarctica - paying to have the Lover postmark on their cards.
From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2025
That afternoon the train station is crowded with crying mothers and sweethearts, stoic fathers, and children, waving red, white, and black flags.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
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.
