Meaning & use
open heart
Last updated
Meanings
nounsingularfigurative
A generous, welcoming and sincere attitude in which you are ready to listen to others, forgive them and accept them without suspicion.
Grammar: Usually appears with 'an' or 'with': she listened with an open heart.
Patterns
- with an open heart
- have an open heart
- give with an open heart
She welcomed the refugee family with an open heart and a spare room.
If you go into the meeting with an open heart, you may learn something.
His open heart made him easy to talk to, even for strangers.
adjectivebefore a nounmedical
Describing surgery in which the chest is cut open so the surgeon can operate directly on the heart.
Grammar: Normally hyphenated and placed before a noun: open-heart surgery, not 'surgery that is open heart'.
Patterns
- open-heart surgery
- open-heart operation
My uncle recovered well after open-heart surgery last spring.
The hospital performs several open-heart operations every week.
Open-heart procedures usually need a stay of several days in intensive care.
Word forms
| plural | open hearts |
|---|
Common combinations
- with an open heart
- Approach the conversation with an open heart rather than a list of complaints.
- open-heart surgery
- The child needed open-heart surgery soon after birth.
- speak from an open heart
- At the funeral he spoke from an open heart about his old friend.
- keep an open heart
- Try to keep an open heart even when people disappoint you.
- open-heart procedure
- A new open-heart procedure has shortened recovery times.
Synonyms and how they differ
- generosity
- Generosity focuses on giving freely, while open heart describes a wider emotional readiness to accept and forgive.
- openness
- Openness can be purely intellectual, whereas open heart always carries warmth and feeling.
- warmth
- Warmth describes how a person comes across, but open heart suggests a deliberate willingness to be vulnerable.
Opposites
Word family
- open-hearted adjective
- kind, frank and generous in feeling
- openly adverb
- in a frank, unhidden way
- openness noun
- the quality of being willing to receive ideas or people
- heartfelt adjective
- sincerely and deeply felt
Commonly confused: open heart or open-minded?
open heart vs open-minded
Open-minded concerns willingness to consider new ideas, while open heart concerns warmth and acceptance of people.
Practice
Which phrase best completes the sentence? 'The retired teacher took in the stray teenager ______, asking nothing in return.'
Choose one answer.
'With an open heart' is the fixed pattern for generous, sincere acceptance. 'In open-heart surgery' is a medical term and makes no sense here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “open heart”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.