Word.ws English Dictionary

lionheart

US/ˈlaɪ.ən.hɑɹt/

lionheart noun: a brave, heroic person.

Noun

lionheart (plural lionhearts)

  1. (idiomatic) A brave, heroic person.
    • But the United States Congress tends to be a courage-free zone, so Mr. McCain’s orneriness toward Republican primary voters makes him a lionheart in the political world.2008 February 17, Nicholas D. Kristof, “The World’s Worst Panderer”, in New York Times

Proper noun capitalized: Lionheart

Lionheart

  1. An epithet of Richard I of England.
    • Lions-heart, is... the by-name of K. Richard.1631, John Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments..., page 644

Forms of lionheart

plurallionhearts

Plural of lionheart: lionhearts

Origin of lionheart

From lion + heart, perhaps from Richard the Lionheart.

From Middle English calques of Cœur de Lion (“[with the] Heart of a Lion”).

Questions about lionheart

What does lionheart mean?
Lionheart means a brave, heroic person.
What part of speech is lionheart?
Lionheart can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce lionheart?
Lionheart is pronounced /ˈlaɪ.ən.hɑɹt/ (US).
What is the plural of lionheart?
The plural of lionheart is lionhearts.

Words near lionheart in the dictionary

  1. lionhead cichlids
  2. lionhead rabbit
  3. lionhead rabbits
  4. lionheaded
  5. lionheads
  6. lionheart
  7. lionhearted
  8. lionheartedly
  9. lionheartedness
  10. lionhearts
  11. lionhood

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lionheart (page history and authors); Lionheart (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Lionheart.wav.

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