Heartbroken means crushed by grief or by lost love. Not sad — undone.
English keeps a whole set of phrases treating the heart as the organ that feels, and this is the strongest of them. It fits bereavement and the end of a relationship equally, and it is also used, only half jokingly, about smaller losses like a team going out of a cup. The noun is heartbreak and the adjective for the cause is heartbreaking. The word is written as one word, and to break somebody's heart is the verb behind it.
1adjectiveheartbrokenOverwhelmed by grief or disappointment.
“She was heartbroken when the dog died.”
Also accepted in games: devastated
From heart + broken.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Feelings & Character, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 33 of A Man Called Ove.
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