heart attack

See synonyms for heart attack on Thesaurus.com
nounPathology.
  1. damage to an area of heart muscle that is deprived of oxygen, usually due to blockage of a diseased coronary artery, typically accompanied by chest pain radiating down one or both arms, the severity of the attack varying with the extent and location of the damage; myocardial infarction.

Origin of heart attack

1
First recorded in 1925–30

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use heart attack in a sentence

  • I have hopes, high hopes, that might have brought on the real heart attack he had the next day.

    Cue for Quiet | Thomas L. Sherred
  • The doctor told us he had suffered a massive heart attack and knew he wouldn't live.

  • The phone rang in the house and the lady came out to tell us my father had been taken to the hospital with a heart attack.

  • Did the prisoner show any symptoms of illness before his heart attack?

    The Red Seal | Natalie Sumner Lincoln
  • She must have suffered a heart-attack and fallen as she tried to cross the room alone.

    Destiny | Charles Neville Buck

British Dictionary definitions for heart attack

heart attack

noun
  1. any sudden severe instance of abnormal heart functioning, esp coronary thrombosis

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for heart attack

heart attack

  1. Necrosis of a region of the heart muscle caused by an interruption in the supply of blood to the heart, usually as a result of occlusion of a coronary artery resulting from coronary artery disease. Symptoms typically include sudden, crushing chest pain, nausea, and sweating. Characteristic changes in the electrocardiogram are used to diagnose heart attacks. Also called myocardial infarction

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Cultural definitions for heart attack

heart attack

An episode of heart failure or the stopping of normal heart function; a coronary thrombosis. Symptoms of a heart attack include pain and pressure in the chest, which often spread to the shoulder, arm, and neck. Today, physicians tend to define heart attack in terms of muscle damage to the heart caused by oxygen deprivation.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.