purple heart

1. 1.

   a United States military decoration awarded to any member of the armed forces who is wounded in action

   SynonymsOrder of the Purple Heart

   Broaderdecoration
2. 2.

   a long-acting barbiturate used as a sedative

   Synonymssodium thiopentalphenobarbitalphenobarbitoneLuminal

   Broaderbarbiturate

Questions about purple heart

What does purple heart mean?

purple heart means "a United States military decoration awarded to any member of the armed forces who is wounded in action". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for purple heart?

Close synonyms include Order of the Purple Heart, sodium thiopental, phenobarbital, phenobarbitone, Luminal. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is purple heart a common word?

purple heart is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.