Word.ws English Dictionary

by heart

UK/baɪ ˈhɑːt//baɪ ˈhɑɹt/

by heart prepositional phrase: from unaided memory and in full detail.

Prepositional phrase

  1. From unaided memory and in full detail.
    • to learn something by heart
    • to know something by heart

by heart meaning in Arabic and Persian

by heart in Arabic

Translations
عَنْ ظَهْرِ ٱلْقَلْبِ ʕan ẓahri l-qalbi

by heart in Persian

Translations
از بر az bar, از حفظ az hefz

Examples of by heart in a sentence

  • He used to live in that town, and he still knows all the streets by heart.
  • It was also found that the stupider animals, such as the sheep, hens, and ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […]...
  • This detail alarmed investigators because Mary’s home phone number was unlisted and Jo-Anne was one of the very few people who might have known the private number by heart.2026 July 25, Nicholas Muhoro, “The Last Call of Jo-Anne Pedersen, the Girl Who Vanished From a Payphone”, in Skip Boring, archived from...

Forms of by heart

alternative formoff by heart

Origin of by heart

From Middle English by herte. Compare French par cœur (literally “by heart”), of which the English may be a calque.

Words formed from by heart

Questions about by heart

What does by heart mean?
By heart means from unaided memory and in full detail.
What is by heart in Arabic?
By heart in Arabic is عَنْ ظَهْرِ ٱلْقَلْبِ (ʕan ẓahri l-qalbi). See By heart meaning in Arabic.
How do you use by heart in a sentence?
He used to live in that town, and he still knows all the streets by heart.
What part of speech is by heart?
By heart is a prepositional phrase.
How do you pronounce by heart?
By heart is pronounced /baɪ ˈhɑːt/ (UK).

Words near by heart in the dictionary

  1. by gum
  2. by gummy
  3. by half
  4. by halves
  5. by hand
  6. by heart
  7. by heavens
  8. by hell
  9. by hook and by crook
  10. by hook or by crook
  11. by hook or crook

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by heart (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-by_heart.ogg, en-au-by heart.ogg.

Cite this entry: “by heart.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/by_heart. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.