in heart of hearts
- idiom
- Informal
:
en el fondo
- He pretended to be confident, but in heart of hearts, he was still unsure.
Examples
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I know, in heart of hearts, that she loves me.
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He felt, in heart of hearts, that he had made the right choice.
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In heart of hearts, she knew she would always return to her hometown.
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In heart of hearts, we all want to be understood and accepted.
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In heart of hearts, she knew she would always return to her hometown.
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In heart of hearts, we all want to be understood and accepted.
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I know, in heart of hearts, that she loves me.
Synonyms
117
3.5
In your real feelings or beliefs that you do not show
77
3.5
Really being a certain kind of person despite how someone seems
How Sincere
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'in' + 'heart' + 'of' + 'heart(s)' point to being inside the core feeling, so a learner who knows the words can likely infer a sense like 'deep down' or 'in one's innermost feelings'. However, the reduplicated idiomatic form 'heart of hearts' functions as an intensifier and encodes a nuanced meaning (truly/sincerely even if not admitted) that is not fully predictable from the parts alone, so full comprehension typically requires prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom in heart of hearts comes from the picture of a heart inside another heart, a small, private place for your deepest feelings. So when someone says in heart of hearts, they mean 'deep down' or 'truly', even if they do not say it out loud.