Meaning & use
with a heavy heart
Last updated
Meaning
phrasefixed phraseliterary
Feeling sadness or reluctance while doing or saying something difficult.
Grammar: Introduces an action or decision and usually follows the subject: She left with a heavy heart.
Patterns
- do something with a heavy heart
- with a heavy heart, someone does something
With a heavy heart, Maya closed the shop her grandmother had opened.
He said goodbye with a heavy heart and promised to visit soon.
Common combinations
- leave with a heavy heart
- They left the old house with a heavy heart.
- announce with a heavy heart
- The mayor announced, with a heavy heart, that the festival was canceled.
- say goodbye with a heavy heart
- We said goodbye with a heavy heart at the station.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sadly
- “Sadly” is plainer; “with a heavy heart” is more expressive and suited to stories or formal emotional moments.
- reluctantly
- “Reluctantly” stresses unwillingness, not necessarily grief; the phrase can combine both reluctance and sorrow.
Opposites
Word family
- heaviness noun
- The feeling or quality of being emotionally weighed down.
- heavy-hearted adjective
- Feeling sad; less common than the fixed phrase.
Commonly confused: with a heavy heart or heavy hearted?
with a heavy heart vs heavy hearted
Write the fixed phrase as “with a heavy heart”; the hyphenated adjective “heavy-hearted” is possible before a noun but less common.
Practice
Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Choose one answer.
The fixed phrase keeps “a” and singular “heart” after “with.” The other options drop “with,” misuse the adjective form, or pluralize “heart.”
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “with a heavy heart”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.