Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The floor of a fireplace, usually extending into a room and paved with brick, flagstone, or cement.
- n. Family life; the home.
- n. Metallurgy The lowest part of a blast furnace or cupola, from which the molten metal flows.
- n. Metallurgy The bottom of a reverberatory furnace, where ore is exposed to the flame.
- n. The fireplace or brazier of a blacksmith's forge.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. That part of the floor of a room on which the fire is made, or upon or above which a receptacle for the fire rests: generally a pavement or floor of brick or stone below an opening in the chimney, as in a fireplace. That part of the hearth of a fireplace which is within the limits of the chimney is called the inner hearth; its continuation beyond these limits, as by a slab of stone, is the outer hearth.
- n. The fireside; the domestic circle; the home.
- n. In metallurgy: The floor in a reverberatory furnace on which the ore is exposed to the flame. See furnace.
- n. The lowest part of a blast-furnace, through which the metal descends to the crucible. See furnace.
- n. A bloomery.
- n. Nautical, the grate and apparatus for cooking on board ship.
- n. In soldering: An ordinary brazier or chafing-dish containing charcoal.
- n. An iron box, about 2 feet by 1 foot 6 inches deep, sunk in the middle of a flat iron plate or table, measuring about 4 feet by 3 feet. It is provided with an airblast, and has a hood above, to gather smoke and gases and carry them to the chimney.
- n. In glass manufacturing See flattening-hearth.
Wiktionary
- n. A brick, stone or cement floor to a fireplace or oven.
- n. An open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire may be built.
- n. The lowest part of a metallurgical furnace.
- n. A symbol for home or family life.
- n. paganism A household or group following the modern pagan faith of Heathenry.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.
- n. The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.
- n. (Metal. & Manuf.) The floor of a furnace, on which the material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a melting furnace, into which the melted material settles.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out into a room)
- n. home symbolized as a part of the fireplace
- n. an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built
Etymologies
- Old English heorþ, from Proto-Germanic *herþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“heat; fire”). Cognate with Dutch haard, German Herd, Swedish härd. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English herth, from Old English heorth. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Behind the hearth is a recess in the wall to contain cooking utensils.”
“The walk-in hearth or settle fireplace (with a bench at either side of the hearth) was common.”
“Her face was wrapped in the folds of her cloak, but I heard her whisper, as if to herself: 'No! no! That old hearth is not a lodestone.”
“Time and tide wait for no man; brains may throb, and hearts may ache or break, but the world rolls on just the same, for weal and woe, whether the grim skeleton that comes an unbidden guest on so many a man's hearth is shrouded in elegance or bare in all its appalling hideousness.”
“His fine sonnets to Liberty, and indeed, all his pieces which have any reference to political interest, remind me of the spirit in which Schiller has conceived the character of William Tell, a calm, single hearted herdsman of the hills, breaking forth into fiery and indignant eloquence, when the sanctity of his hearth is invaded.”
“I am never domesticated in lodgings the hearth is unhallowed & the”
“In other words, replace the word hearth/home with WORK, and I agree.”
“But now I know these things, which are things I have learnedin the school of the ruined hearth, which is held in both our rooms, where a fire sharedis the cheapest fire of all.”
The Guardian: Poem of the week: A Fire Shared by Peter Didsbury
“I have one small area that I call the hearth room.”
“A wood fire in the hearth is a little household sun.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hearth’.
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Old words
Old words: modern English words that are old according to criteria that are still vague: Either words common to several old languages or words substantially similar in old English. Please add to or...
mother, father, bark, spit, old, fire, this, that, black, thou, to give, hand and 259 more...
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henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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HKI
hearth, hearthstone, fireside, snug, nest, dwell, nido, plush, fireplace, glow, ember, nook and 8 more...
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Reading 2nd Round
fugitive, hearth, elixir, perpetrator, surreal, tavern, stalk, strut, duress, cavil, intriguing, banister and 10 more...
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It's an art
applecart, arterial, arthology, artesian, arthropod, arthrostraca, artifex, artificial, articulate, articling, artichoke, blue darter and 51 more...
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Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 175 more...
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thing
apron, lard, clove, camphor, alfalfa, amber, caraway, juniper, kohl, lute, shale, glyph and 142 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Buttery
Words that make me feel cozy
Noodle, Nugget, Butter, Soft, Snug, Feather, Socks, Knit, Mug, Curl, Billow, Lounge and 315 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (H)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
haberdashery, hailstone, halcyon, halibut, halo, hamadryad, hammock, harangue, harbour, harebell, harlequin, harp and 104 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hearth.

pirate1107 I'm curious.... is there an etymological connection to the word "heart"? Jan 11, 2010