hart

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɑːt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /hɑɹt/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t
• Homophones: Hart, heart

From Middle English hert, from Old English heorot (“stag”), from Proto-West Germanic *herut, from Proto-Germanic *herutaz (compare Dutch hert, German Hirsch, Danish/Norwegian/Swedish hjort), from Pre-Germanic *kerudos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“horn”). Doublet of Heorot.

hart (countable and uncountable, plural hart or harts)

1. (countable) A male deer, especially the male of the red deer after his fifth year.

   Synonyms: buck; stag (sometimes hyponymous)

   Hypernyms: deer < cervid < ungulate < mammal < animal < creature, critter

   Hyponyms: brocket, knobber, knobbler, pricket, spitter, spayard, spay

   Coordinate term: hind (the female)

   • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     With milke-white Hartes vpon an Iuorie ſled,
     Thou ſhalt be drawen amidſt the froſen Pooles,
     And ſcale the yſie mountaines lofty tops:
     Which with thy beautie will be soone reſolu’d.

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, “The thirteenth Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 213:

     Then, finding Herds of luſtie Deare, / She Huntreſſe-like the Hart purſues; […]

2. (uncountable) The meat from this animal.
   • 1891 July 8, L. S., “Twenty Hidden Towns in One State”, in Good Housekeeping […], volume XIII, number 2 (154 overall), Springfield, Mass., published August 1891, →OCLC, page 95, column 1:

     We are to have hart for dinner on Jack’s birthday; you call it deer in Grenada.

   • 1999, James B[iser] Whisker, “Hunting in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition”, in The Right to Hunt, revised edition, Bellevue, Wash.: Merril Press, →ISBN, page 38:

     The people of Israel knew something of hunting, as in the stories of eating hart and roebuck, and venison.

   • 2003, Richard D. Taber, Neil F. Payne, “Ancient Warrior-Rulers”, in Wildlife, Conservation, and Human Welfare: A United States and Canadian Perspective, Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 30:

     Still, the people of Israel certainly knew about hunting, because they ate hart (red deer) and roe deer.

See heart.

hart (plural harts)

1. Obsolete spelling of heart.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], signature B, recto:

     For this reliefe much thanks, tis bitter cold, / And I am ſick at hart.

Abbreviation of hardware thread. As stated in The RISC-V Instruction Set Manual, Volume I:

The corresponding source reads:

hart (plural harts)

1. (computing) In the RISC-V instruction set architecture, a hardware thread.

   It is required by the RISC-V specification that at least one hart be assigned an ID of 0.

• Andrew Waterman, Krste Asanović, editors (24 October 2025), The RISC-V Instruction Set Manual, Volume I: User-Level ISA‎^[1], Document Version 20191214-draft edition, page 14
• Heidi Pan, Benjamin Hindman, Krste Asanović (2009), “Lithe: Enabling efficient composition of parallel libraries”, in Proc. of HotPar‎^[2], volume 9‎^[3]

• Arth, Rath, Thar, rath, tahr, thar

From Dutch hart, from Middle Dutch herte, harte, from Old Dutch herta, from Proto-Germanic *hertô, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr.

• Audio:

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hart (plural harte)

1. heart

• IPA^(key): /ɦɑrt/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: hart
• Rhymes: -ɑrt
• Homophone: hard

From Middle Dutch herte, harte, from Old Dutch herta, from Proto-West Germanic *hertā, from Proto-Germanic *hertô, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr.

hart n or f (plural harten, diminutive hartje n)

1. heart, main muscle pumping blood through the body
2. the center point or zone of an object, image etc.
3. the core or essence of some thing, reasoning etc.
4. compassionate or similar feelings

• Previously the gender of this word could be feminine, which is still reflected in fossilized expressions such as ter harte nemen, which uses feminine case forms (ter). In modern usage the word is always neuter, however (leaving aside the mentioned fossilized expressions).

• hert, herte

• Afrikaans: hart
• Negerhollands: hert, hart, hat
• → Sranan Tongo: ati
  • → Saramaccan: áti, háti
• → Unami: halët

hart n (plural harten, diminutive hartje n)

1. (Northern) archaic form of hert (“deer”)

See harður (“hard, loud”)

hart (neuter of harður)

1. hard
2. loud

Inherited from Middle French hart, from Old French hart, hard, a borrowing from Frankish *heʀdā.

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /aʁ/, /aʁt/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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hart f (plural harts)

1. (archaic) cord, rope; halter (hangman's rope)

• “hart”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From Middle High German hart, Old High German hart, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kortús (“strong; powerful”). Cognate with Low German hard, hart, Dutch hard, English hard, Danish hård.

• IPA^(key): /hart/, [haʁt], [haɐ̯t], [haːt]

• Audio:

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• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

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• Audio (Austria):

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• Homophones: harrt (general), haart (some speakers)

hart (strong nominative masculine singular harter, comparative härter, superlative am härtesten)

1. hard
2. severe, harsh
   • 1981, “Polizisten”, performed by Extrabreit:

     Sie rauchen "Milde Sorte" / Weil–das Leben ist doch hart genug

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2012 May 2, Die Welt, page 10:

     Die harten Einschnitte zum Schuldenabbau standen in vielen EU-Ländern im Zentrum der Kritik der Demonstranten.

     The severe cuts for the reduction of debt were in many EU countries at the center of criticism by the protesters.

3. (figurative) unmoved, cold, cruel
   • 1924, Thomas Mann, Der Zauberberg [The Magic Mountain], volume 1, Berlin: S. Fischer, page 528:

     Seit vier Jahren hier oben, war die Mittellose von harten Verwandten abhängig, die sie schon einmal, da sie doch sterben müsse, von hier fortgenommen und nur auf Einspruch des Hofrats wieder heraufgeschickt hatten.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• härten
• Härte

hart

1. hard (with force or effort)

   Sie haben die ganze Woche hart gearbeitet.

   They worked hard all week.

2. sharply, roughly, severely
3. close [with an (+ dative) ‘to someone/something’]

• “hart” in Duden online
• “hart” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

hart

1. neuter nominative/accusative of harður

Borrowed from English heart.

• hartas

hart m (genitive singular hairt, nominative plural hairt)

1. (card games) heart

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

hart

1. h-prothesized form of art

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “hart”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

• hert

From Old Dutch hart.

hart

1. hard (not soft)
2. solid, sturdy
3. hard, harsh, cruel

• Dutch: hard
  • Jersey Dutch: hārd
  • Negerhollands: hart
  • Skepi Creole Dutch: hardt

• “hart”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “hart (II)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page II

• Hart (Sylt)

From Old Frisian herte, from Proto-West Germanic *hertā. Cognates include West Frisian hert.

hart n (plural harten)

1. (Föhr-Amrum, Mooring) heart

   At hart klopet/böget.

   My heart is beating.

From Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī).

hart (comparative hardiro, superlative hardist)

1. hard

• Middle Dutch: hart, hert
  • Dutch: hard
    • Jersey Dutch: hārd
    • Negerhollands: hart
    • Skepi Creole Dutch: hardt

• “hart (II)”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

• herti

From Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, whence also Old Saxon hard, Old Dutch hart, Old English heard, Old Norse harðr, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kert-, *kret- (“strong; powerful”).

hart

1. hard, firm
2. steadfast, firm in character or opinion; insistent
3. difficult to endure, severe, oppressive
4. hard to do
5. strong, intense

• einhart (adjective)
• hartī

• Middle High German: hart, herte
  • Alemannic German: hert

    Swabian: hirrt

  • Bavarian: hoat
  • Central Franconian: haat
  • German: hart
  • Luxembourgish: haart
  • Yiddish: האַרט (hart)

• Karg-Gasterstädt, Elisabeth; Frings, Theodor; et al., editors (1952–2022), “hart”, in Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch‎^[4] (in German), Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, via Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig

hart

1. strong neuter nominative/accusative singular of harðr

Borrowed from German Härte, from Old High German hartī.

• IPA^(key): /ˈxart/

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -art
• Syllabification: hart
• Homophone: chart

hart m inan

1. strength, resilience, fortitude

• hart in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• hart in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From Old Swedish hart, from Old Swedish harþer, from Old Norse harðr. Doublet of hård.

hart (not comparable)

1. only used in hart när

• hart in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• hart in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• hart in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From Old Frisian hert, from Proto-West Germanic *herut.

• IPA^(key): /hat/

hart n (plural harten, diminutive hartsje)

1. deer

• reahart

• “hart (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

hart

1. alternative form of hearth
   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 10, page 88:

     Oore hart cam' t' oore mouth, an zo w' all ee green;

     Our hearts came to our mouth, and so with all in the green;

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 88