as in sorrow
deep sadness especially for the loss of someone or something loved
the heartache she felt when she saw the innocent victims of the war
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Recent Examples of heartache
Johnson’s worries stemmed from a ski racing career that has reached Olympic heights, but also suffered lows, injuries, and heartache.
—
Katherine Cusumano, Outside, 21 Feb. 2026
There will be heartaches and heart attacks along the way, but there always will be a tomorrow, the enduring beauty of baseball.
—Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb. 2026
Just as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another reverberate America’s heartache, the sizzling American plays that Dyer’s chosen to oversee artistically foreshadow in different ways the cause of the country’s recent cardiac arrest.
—Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 20 Feb. 2026
Everyone has had heartache and wanted to get someone back.
—Tim Spiers, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for heartache
Katherine Cusumano, Outside, 21 Feb. 2026
There will be heartaches and heart attacks along the way, but there always will be a tomorrow, the enduring beauty of baseball.
—Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb. 2026
Just as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another reverberate America’s heartache, the sizzling American plays that Dyer’s chosen to oversee artistically foreshadow in different ways the cause of the country’s recent cardiac arrest.
—Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 20 Feb. 2026
Everyone has had heartache and wanted to get someone back.
—Tim Spiers, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for heartache
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heartache
Noun
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Giving in, in this case, is drowning his sorrows in drink.—
Christina Grace Tucker,
Vulture,
26 Feb. 2026
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Such trickery to assign great value to low-worth materials also underpins the surprise ending for The Girl Who Cried Pearls, which follows a poor boy falling in love with a girl overwhelmed by sorrow to the point her tears turn into pearls.—
Etan Vlessing,
HollywoodReporter,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
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With no answers, her parents’ intense grief settled into silence, and her three brothers grew up not knowing what happened to their 3-year-old sister.—
Hilary Whiteman,
CNN Money,
28 Feb. 2026
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He was stuck deep in the recesses of shock and grief at the loss of the boy who’d labored by his side for so long, a boy who’d never harmed anyone and who had sat behind the wheel of that silver Saab from sunrise to sundown for the family.—
Anand Gopal,
New Yorker,
28 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Putting private anguish and public witnessing into forceful tension, Paksa fashioned a productively ambivalent rubric for the artist under authoritarianism.—
Daniel R. Quiles,
Artforum,
1 Mar. 2026
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The discomfort of boredom, even the anguish of it, can spur us into flights of imagination, resourcefulness, and invention.—
Daniel Smith,
The Atlantic,
27 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Alex Sebek tried her hardest to put aside the heartbreak long enough to look at the big picture.—
Steve Millar,
Chicago Tribune,
2 Mar. 2026
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Season 2 saw the ladies battling love, heartbreak, motherhood, jealousy, and the full force of the English legal system.—
Mekishana Pierre,
Entertainment Weekly,
27 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Heartache.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heartache. Accessed 4 Mar. 2026.
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