Word.ws English Dictionary

hearthstone

Syllables: hearth·stoneUK/ˈhɑːθstəʊn/US/ˈhɑɹθstoʊn/

hearthstone noun: a flat stone used to form a hearth.

Noun

hearthstone (plural hearthstones)

  1. A flat stone used to form a hearth.
    • I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which my landlord advanced […].1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter I, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC
  2. (broadly, figuratively) The fireside, home life.
    • I am going to my own hearth-stone, / Bosomed in yon green hills alone,1846, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Good-Bye, line 15
    • The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land1861, Abraham Lincoln, First inaugural address
  3. A soft kind of stone used to whiten doorsteps, scour floors, etc.
    • Lastly, there is the hearth-stone barrow, piled up with hearth-stone, Bath-brick and lumps of whiting1861, Henry Mayhew, London labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 29

Verb

hearthstone (third-person singular simple present hearthstones, present participle hearthstoning, simple past and past participle hearthstoned)

  1. (transitive) To scour, as a floor, with hearthstone.
    • We've a woman come in twice a week, to scrub, and red-brick, and hearthstone, and black-lead, and the rest we manage ourselves.1876, Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine, page 202

Forms of hearthstone

Noun
pluralhearthstones
alternative formhearth-stone
Verb
third-person singular presenthearthstones
present participlehearthstoning
past participlehearthstoned
pasthearthstoned

Plural of hearthstone: hearthstones

Origin of hearthstone

From hearth + stone.

Questions about hearthstone

What does hearthstone mean?
Hearthstone means a flat stone used to form a hearth.
What part of speech is hearthstone?
Hearthstone can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce hearthstone?
Hearthstone is pronounced /ˈhɑɹθstoʊn/ (US).
What is the plural of hearthstone?
The plural of hearthstone is hearthstones.

Words near hearthstone in the dictionary

  1. hearthsful
  2. hearthside
  3. hearthsides
  4. hearthstead
  5. hearthsteads
  6. hearthstone
  7. hearthstoned
  8. Hearthstoner
  9. Hearthstoners
  10. hearthstones
  11. hearthstoning

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hearthstone (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.

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