encourage suggests the raising of one's confidence especially by an external agency.
the teacher's praise encouraged the students to greater efforts
inspirit, somewhat literary, implies instilling life, energy, courage, or vigor into something.
patriots inspirited the people to resist
hearten implies the lifting of dispiritedness or despondency by an infusion of fresh courage or zeal.
a hospital patient heartened by good news
embolden implies the giving of courage sufficient to overcome timidity or reluctance.
emboldened by her first success, she tried an even more difficult climb
Examples of hearten in a Sentence
The team's victory has heartened its fans.
thinking we were hopelessly lost, we were heartened by the sight of a familiar farmhouse
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She was heartened to see that 1,079 people — about 49% of voters — backed the idea.—Richard Requena, Chicago Tribune, 5 Apr. 2025 Those who knew Feinberg back then are heartened to see him in his current position.—Dan Alexander, Forbes.com, 2 Apr. 2025 We are heartened by the number of New Mexicans getting vaccinated in response to this outbreak.—Faisal Kutty, Newsweek, 12 Mar. 2025 Fellow freshmen Maggie Mora-Romero and Carla Brambila were nervous to attend but heartened by the movement to stand with immigrants.—Jennah Pendleton, Sacramento Bee, 12 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for hearten
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