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heartrending

heartrending

2 7.8
Causes people to feel very sad
  • adjective
  • /ˈhɑrtˌrɛndɪŋ/
translation icon : desgarrador
  • The story on your Tumblr about your baby goats being born, and unfortunately losing one (read here), is both heartwarming and heartrending.
  • a heartrending story
  • a heartrending scene
  • the most heartrending

Examples

  • In a heartrending scene, the father hugged his daughter tightly as they said goodbye at the airport.

  • "It was heartrending, that look in Bennie's eyes."

    Fiction book (1994)
  • What makes the case especially heartrending is that the birth mother has said she would take Emily back just to keep her from her biological father.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Many school counselors have witnessed a heartrending scene at the start of the school year, in which distressed young children are facing new and challenging situations and tasks.

    Academic text (2007)
  • Its subject was the most heartrending sight of 9/11, the multitude of victims driven by the flames to leap from the World Trade Center towers, their private agony played out on the world's most public stage.

    Academic text (2009)
  • The movie was heartrending, leaving many in the audience in tears by the final credits.

  • Her heartrending story about losing her pet moved everyone in the room to tears.

Synonyms

heartbreaking
vsheartrending
92 3.7

Causing someone to feel very sad and upset

is more about being deeply moving rather than only sorrow
grievous
vsheartrending
  • Formal
26 7.9

Causing great pain or sorrow

is more about deep moving sorrow rather than broad serious harm
heart-breaking
vsheartrending
17 3.5

To make someone feel very sad and often cry

is similar but stresses being deeply moving rather than just sadness
gut-wrenching
vsheartrending
15 7.4

That makes you feel very sad and upset

is intense but focuses on deep sorrow rather than visceral hurt
wrenching
vsheartrending
9 7.5

Causing very strong emotional or physical pain

leans toward emotional sorrow rather than physical pain

Antonyms

70 1.0

Feeling or showing great happiness

1 4.1

A rise of land, water, or air to a higher level

How Moving

devastating
224 5.1
heartbreaking
92 3.7
heartrending
2 7.8
moving
7 3.3
touching
1 3.4

Surface Forms

heartrending positive

Morphology

heartrending = heart + rend (semi-transparent) = heart + rend + ing

The compound 'heart' + 'rend' is clear, but the metaphorical sense ('causing emotional pain') requires understanding of 'heart' as emotion and the poetic use of 'rending'.

Etymology

Heartrending comes from heart and rend, where rend means 'to tear', so it paints the picture of your heart being torn. That's why something heartrending causes deep sorrow.