by heart

See also: byheart

English

Alternative forms

• off by heart

Etymology

From Middle English by herte. Compare French par cœur (literally “by heart”), of which the English may be a calque.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /baɪ ˈhɑːt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /baɪ ˈhɑɹt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

by heart

1. From unaided memory and in full detail.

   Hyponym: (usually pejorative) by rote

   to learn something by heart

   to know something by heart

   He used to live in that town, and he still knows all the streets by heart.

   • 1906, The Monthly Musical Record‎^[1], volume 36, page 55:

     You should play over all the pieces you know by heart at least once a month or oftener with the printed copies before you: or all sorts of wrong notes may creep in, and you will be leaving out some crescendo, or rallentando, or sforzato.

   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

     None of the other animals on the farm could get further than the letter A. It was also found that the stupider animals, such as the sheep, hens, and ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart.

   • 2026 July 25, Nicholas Muhoro, “The Last Call of Jo-Anne Pedersen, the Girl Who Vanished From a Payphone”, in Skip Boring‎^[2], archived from the original on 26 July 2026:

     Two weeks into the investigation, Jo-Anne’s grandmother, Mary Riley, received a call at her home. When Mary picked up the phone, a heavy male voice said, “Listen to this.” It was followed by the sounds of a young child sobbing hysterically into the receiver. Mary firmly believed this voice belonged to her granddaughter, then the line went dead. This detail alarmed investigators because Mary’s home phone number was unlisted and Jo-Anne was one of the very few people who might have known the private number by heart.

Derived terms

• byheart

Translations

Translations

• Arabic: عَنْ ظَهْرِ ٱلْقَلْبِ (ʕan ẓahri l-qalbi)
• Armenian: անգիր (hy) (angir)
• Azerbaijani: əzbər, əzbərdən, hafizədən, döşdən
• Belarusian: напа́мяць (napámjacʹ)
• Breton: dindan eñvor (br), dre eñvor
• Bulgarian: наизу́ст (bg) (naizúst)
• Catalan: de cor, de memòria
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 靠記憶 / 靠记忆 (kào jìyì)

• Czech: zpaměti (cs), nazpaměť (cs)
• Dalmatian: inamiant
• Danish: udenad
• Dutch: uit het hoofd, van buiten
• Esperanto: parkere (eo)
• Estonian: peast, pähe
• Faroese: uttanat
• Finnish: ulkoa (fi)
• French: par cœur (fr), de mémoire (fr), de tête (fr)
• Georgian: ზეპირად (zeṗirad)
• German: auswendig (de)
• Greek: απέξω (el) (apéxo)
• Hebrew: בְּעַל פֶּה (he) (be'ál pé)
• Hungarian: kívülről (hu), fejből, betéve (hu)
• Icelandic: utan að
• Ido: memore (io)
• Italian: a memoria
• Japanese: 暗記して (ja) (あんきして, anki-shite), 空で (そらで, sora-de)
• Korean: 암기하다 (ko) (amgihada)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ji ber (ku), ezber (ku)

• Latin: memoriter
• Lithuanian: mintinai
• Macedonian: напамет (napamet), наизуст (naizust)
• Norman: par tchoeu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: utenat (no)

  Nynorsk: utanåt, utanboks

• Persian: از بر (fa) (az bar), از حفظ (az hefz)
• Polish: na pamięć (pl)
• Portuguese: de cor (pt), de memória, na ponta da língua, de cabeça
• Romanian: pe de rost, pe dinafară
• Russian: наизу́сть (ru) (naizústʹ), на па́мять (ru) (na pámjatʹ), назубо́к (ru) (nazubók)
• Scottish Gaelic: air teangaidh
• Serbo-Croatian: napamet (sh)
• Slovak: naspamäť, spamäti
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: z głowy

  Upper Sorbian: z hłowy, z pomjatka

• Spanish: de memoria, de cabeza
• Swedish: utantill (sv)
• Turkish: ezbere (tr), ezberden (tr)
• Ukrainian: на па́м'ять (na pámʺjatʹ)

See also

• from memory

References

• “by heart” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “by heart”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• breathy