heartful

Heartful is an English adjective meaning made with heart or full of feeling, compassion, or sincerity. It is closely related to heartfelt and wholehearted, though heartful is less common in modern standard usage. In contemporary writing, heartfelt is usually preferred when describing sincerity, while heartful tends to appear in literary, poetic, or branding contexts as a stylistic variant.

Usage notes: As a modifier, heartful can describe attitudes, gestures, or expressions that arise from genuine feeling. However, its collocations are rarer than those of heartfelt. People often express similar ideas with “a heartfelt apology,” “a wholehearted effort,” or “from the heart.” The term may appear in poetry, advertising, or spiritual writing to evoke warmth and compassion.

Etymology: The word is formed from the noun heart and the suffix -ful, similar to other adjectives indicating abundance of a quality. The sense of “full of heart” aligns with metaphorical uses of the heart as the seat of emotion.

See also: heartfelt, wholehearted, heart-centered, compassion, sincerity. There are proper nouns and brand names that capitalize the term, such as Heartfulness, a meditation organization; this usage is distinct from the generic adjectival use of heartful.

Examples: In practice, “heartful” is rare and some writers prefer alternatives such as “heartfelt” or “from the heart.” When aiming for clarity in standard prose, choosing those more common forms is usually advisable.