heartstring

noun heart·string \ ˈhärt-ˌstriŋ \

|Updated on: 12 Jun 2018

Editor's Note: heartstring Has a Medical History

Definition of heartstring

1 obsolete : a nerve once believed to sustain the heart

2 : the deepest emotions or affections —usually used in plural

That movie really pulls at your heartstrings.

See heartstring defined for kids

heartstring was our Word of the Day on 02/14/2013. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of heartstring from the Web

Two famous babies met for the first time in a historic photo that's pulling on the heartstrings of thousands of people across the web.

— scott berson, miamiherald, "The first Gerber baby met the newest Gerber baby - and there's an adorable photo, too," 6 June 2018
Kara’s story seems over-designed to tug on the emotional heartstrings.

— kyle orland, Ars Technica, "Detroit: Become Human review: Robotic in all of the wrong ways," 24 May 2018
The suave actor pulled at our heartstrings in Lady Bird and later swept us away, playing the lovelorn character Elio in Call Me by Your Name.

— liana satenstein, Vogue, "Timothée Chalamet Merchandise Is a Real Thing," 14 May 2018
The big shows at Petrillo feature some great locals too, including heartstring-pulling singer-songwriter Half Gringa, hard-working rapper the Boy Illinois, and R&B wonder BJ the Chicago Kid.

— leor galil, Chicago Reader, "Music Guess who’s coming to play at Taste of Chicago this year?," 2 May 2018
The Vampire Diaries heartstrings played like a fiddle!

— noelle devoe, Seventeen, "Ian Somerhalder & Paul Wesley Had a "Vampire Diaries" Reunion and It Was EVERYTHING," 12 Feb. 2018
The point of the 60-second spots, each of which features the life story of an Olympic athlete, is to tug heartstrings and drive audience for the Pyeongchang Winter Games that begin on NBC four days after Feb. 4’s Super Bowl.

— erik brady, USA TODAY, "NBC has a Super Bowl plan to get you excited for Olympics," 15 Jan. 2018
Having already become the major network success story of 2016, NBC's heartstring-tugging family drama returned even stronger following its winter break.

— emma dibdin, Harper's BAZAAR, "The 20 Best TV Shows Of 2017," 29 Dec. 2017
Jelena's tumultuous relationship, which has been on-and-off for what feels like centuries, continues to tug at all of our collective heartstrings.

— amy mackelden, Marie Claire, "Justin Bieber Misses Selena Gomez, and Hopes She'll Give Him Another Chance," 4 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'heartstring.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

heartstring Has a Medical History

Before a song or movie or heart-shaped card accompanied by a box of chocolates could tug at your heartstrings, the job was more likely to be accomplished by a surgeon: the word heartstring used to refer to a nerve believed to sustain the heart. You might recognize the word's second syllable in the term "hamstring," which refers to both a group of tendons at the back of the knee and to any of three muscles at the backs of the upper legs. It's also apparent in a rare dialect term for the Achilles' tendon: "heel string." And in light of these terms, it's not surprising to know that "string" itself was at one time used independently to refer to cords like tendons and ligaments.