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broken heart

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metaphor for intense emotional/physical stress or pain one feels at experiencing great and deep longing

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Instance of
metaphor
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Broken heart.svg
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Commons category
Broken hearts
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psychology
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Encyclopedic overview

1938 poster for an adaptation of Avery Hopwood's Why Men Leave Home, showing a physically cracked heart symbol as a metaphor for unhappiness in love.

A broken heart (also known as heartbreak or heartache) is a metaphor for the intense emotional stress or pain one feels at experiencing great loss or deep longing. It is often greatly associated with grief and mourning especially following the death of a loved one. The concept is cross-cultural, often cited with reference to unreciprocated or lost love.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “broken heart” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.