Word Confusion: Heart Beat versus Heartbeat

Posted September 14, 2015 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
25 Nov 2022

Pinterest pin for Heart Beat versus Heartbeat

No, no, no, no . . . it’s an incomplete sentence. It makes me nuts when writers have their characters hear the heart beats. The heart beats what? Or maybe I should ask who the heart is beating up?

When you look at it, heart beat is a phrase combining a noun and a verb. It must be treated as a noun and a verb. The character would “hear the beats of their heart” or “how the heart beats”, maybe
“how quickly his heart beats”, and make a lot more sense.

If what you want is a noun and just a noun, you want heartbeat. It’s one word: “a victim’s heartbeats” or “her heartbeats gave her away”, which is another thing entirely.

You may also want to explore “Heart Beat versus Heartbeat“, “Heart Broken / Broken Heart versus Heartbroken“, and even “Hardy versus Hearty“.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end. Consider sharing this Word Confusion with friends by tweeting it.

Heart Beat	Heartbeat
The Lovers by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. — My heart beats for The Lovers.	Heart Beat is a GIF and Nevit Dilme’s own work under the GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons while the audio file is by Herbert Bolandand in the public domain, via Freesound.org. — Listen to the heartbeat of one at peace.
Part of Grammar:
Phrase: Noun + Verb More of a metaphor	Noun Usually heartbeats More science- or tech-oriented
This phrase generally is interpreted with: heart as “the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, especially love or compassion or one’s mood or feeling” beat as a metaphor for feeling It can also be quite literal.	One complete pulsation of the heart An animating or vital unifying force A brief space of time
Examples:
The vampire heard his beating heart. My heart beat for her. “Oh boy, my heart beats more than a lakh times a day” (Invisible, 37). “My heart starts missing a beat every time” (Heart).	The vampire heard the heartbeat of his victim. He is the man who is just a heartbeat away from the presidency. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Conflict is the essential heartbeat of fiction. Her heartbeats steadied as the injection took effect. I accepted their offer in a heartbeat.
History of the Word:
Unknown.	Its first known use was in 1850.

Heart Beat

Heartbeat

Painting of The Lovers by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

The Lovers by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

—

My heart beats for The Lovers.

Heart Beat is a GIF and Nevit Dilme’s own work under the GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons while the audio file is by Herbert Bolandand in the public domain, via Freesound.org.

—

Listen to the heartbeat of one at peace.

Part of Grammar:

Phrase: Noun + Verb

More of a metaphor

Noun
Usually heartbeats

More science- or tech-oriented

This phrase generally is interpreted with:

heart as “the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, especially love or compassion or one’s mood or feeling”
beat as a metaphor for feeling

It can also be quite literal.

One complete pulsation of the heart

An animating or vital unifying force

A brief space of time

Examples:

The vampire heard his beating heart.

My heart beat for her.

“Oh boy, my heart beats more than a lakh times a day” (Invisible, 37).

“My heart starts missing a beat every time” (Heart).

The vampire heard the heartbeat of his victim.

He is the man who is just a heartbeat away from the presidency.

I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Conflict is the essential heartbeat of fiction.

Her heartbeats steadied as the injection took effect.

I accepted their offer in a heartbeat.

History of the Word:

Unknown.

Its first known use was in 1850.

Return to top

C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.