heartache
Love's painful residue
Heartache is emotional anguish, especially from grief or disappointed love.
The word locates suffering in the chest, where strong emotions register physically: the heartache of losing a child, all the heartache she'd been through.
It suggests deep, lingering pain rather than sudden shock.
Deep emotional distress
- anguishIntense mental suffering
- melancholySubdued, lasting sadness
- despairTotal absence of hope
- sadnessState of emotional pain
misery · woe · suffering · torment · desolation · bleakness · heaviness · emptiness
Period following loss
- bereavementState following loss
- lossBeing without something
- lamentationPassionate expression of grief
- grievingFeeling sorrow after loss
sorrow · tears · tragedy · devastation · anguish · keening · wailing · eulogy
Not returned in kind
- lovesickPining from romantic longing
- jiltedAbruptly rejected romantically
- rejectionDenial of acceptance
- breakupRomantic relationship's termination
infatuation · limerence · betrayal · abandonment · divorce · spurned · lovelorn · forsaken
Intense prolonged craving
- piningAching with prolonged desire
- nostalgiaLonging for the past
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- homesicknessLonging for one's dwelling
loneliness · craving · hankering · hiraeth · bittersweet · remembrance · reminiscence · separation
sorrow
Deep emotional distress
- anguishIntense mental suffering
- melancholySubdued, lasting sadness
- despairTotal absence of hope
sadness · misery · woe · suffering · torment · desolation · bleakness · heaviness · emptiness · hollowness
mourning
Period following loss
- bereavementState following loss
- lossBeing without something
- lamentationPassionate expression of grief
grieving · sorrow · tears · tragedy · devastation · anguish · keening · wailing · eulogy · condolence
unrequited
Not returned in kind
- lovesickPining from romantic longing
- jiltedAbruptly rejected romantically
- rejectionDenial of acceptance
breakup · infatuation · limerence · betrayal · abandonment · divorce · spurned · lovelorn · forsaken · ghosted
yearning
Intense prolonged craving
- piningAching with prolonged desire
- nostalgiaLonging for the past
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
homesickness · loneliness · craving · hankering · hiraeth · bittersweet · remembrance · reminiscence · separation · absence
pang
Brief sharp sensation
heaviness · chest · flutter · constriction · squeeze · stabbing · dull · sharp · pressure · angina
- griefgrief, mourning, bereavement, sorrow, grieving
- romancelove story, amor, love, boyfriend, courting
- heartbreakdumping, lost love, unrequited love, lovesick, lovelorn
- relationship problemsaffair, disloyalty, adultery, unfaithfulness, cheating
- romantic loveinfatuation, crush, lovesick, lovesickness, puppy love
- heartachelovesick, lovesickness, lovelorn, pining, yearning
heartachejoy
Intense positive emotion
happiness · bliss · elation · ecstasy · jubilation
heartachewedded bliss
Ideal state of matrimony
happily ever after · true love · union · companionship · togetherness