Hearts (french: Cœur, german: Herz) is one of the four suits in

playing cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...

of both the

French deck French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. I ...

and the

German deck German-suited playing cards are a very common style of traditional playing card used in many parts of Central Europe characterised by 32- or 36-card packs with the suits of Acorns (''Eichel'' or ''Kreuz''), Leaves (''Grün'', ''Blatt'', ''Lau ...

. However, the symbol is slightly different: Suit Hearts (open clipart)

in a French deck and Bay herz

in a German-suited deck. In

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

, for which in Germany the

is common, it is called by its French name, ''Cœur''. In games using German-suited cards the suit of Hearts is often called "Red" (''Rot''). In the game of

Watten Watten may refer to: Places * Watten, Nord, a commune in the Nord ''département'' of France ** ''Blockhaus d'Éperlecques'' or Watten bunker, intended to be a launching facility for the V-2 ballistic missile * Watten, Highland, a village in Cai ...

, the King of Hearts is the highest

Trump Trump most commonly refers to: * Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021) * Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank Trump may also refer to: Businesses and organizations * Donald J. T ...

. This suit was invented in 15th century Germany and is a survivor from a large pool of experimental suit signs created to replace the Latin suits.

Name

The origin of the term "heart" to describe the

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

, which only very marginally resembles a true

heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...

, is not known. In general, equivalents in other languages also mean "heart". File:Bay herz.svg, The heart in German suited cards File:Naipe copas.png, The heart in French suited cards

Characteristics

The heart typically has a form of

cardioid In geometry, a cardioid () is a plane curve traced by a point on the perimeter of a circle that is rolling around a fixed circle of the same radius. It can also be defined as an epicycloid having a single cusp. It is also a type of sinusoidal spi ...

, the lower part of which ends in a point. The symbol is drawn with its tip down, the two lobes of the cardioid pointing upwards. Generally, the hearts are coloured

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

French pattern

The following gallery shows the hearts of a

52-card deck The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today. In English-speaking countries it is the only traditional pack used for playing cards; in many countries of the world, however, it is used ...

French playing cards French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are playing cards, cards that use the French Suit (cards), suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three o ...

. Not shown is the Knight of Hearts, used in

tarot card games Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, ...

: File:01 of hearts A.svg,

Ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

File:02 of hearts.svg, 2 File:03 of hearts.svg, 3 File:04 of hearts.svg, 4 File:05 of hearts.svg, 5 File:06 of hearts.svg, 6 File:07 of hearts.svg, 7 File:08 of hearts.svg, 8 File:09 of hearts.svg, 9 File:10 of hearts - David Bellot.svg, 10 File:Jack of hearts fr.svg,

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

File:Queen of hearts fr.svg,

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

File:King of hearts fr.svg,

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

German pattern

The gallery below shows a suit of Hearts from a

German suited deck German-suited playing cards are a very common style of traditional playing card used in many parts of Central Europe characterised by 32- or 36-card packs with the suits of Acorns (''Eichel'' or ''Kreuz''), Leaves (''Grün'', ''Blatt'', ''Laub ...

of 32 cards. The pack is of the Saxonian pattern: File:Saxonian Deck - Hearts - 07.jpg , 7 File:Saxonian Deck - Hearts - 08.jpg , 8 File:Saxonian Deck - Hearts - 09.jpg , 9 File:Saxonian Deck - Hearts - 10.jpg, 10 File:Saxonian Deck - Hearts - Unter.jpg , Unter File:Saxonian Deck - Hearts - Ober.jpg , Ober File:Saxonian Deck - Hearts - King.jpg ,

File:Saxonian Deck - Hearts - Deuce.jpg,

Deuce Deuce, Deuces, or The Deuce may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deuce, in the ''Danger Girl'' comic book series * Deuce, a character in ''Shake It Up'' * Deuce, in the ''Wild Cards'' science fiction universe * Deuce Biga ...

Coding

The symbol ♥ is already in the CP437 and therefore also in the

WGL4 Windows Glyph List 4, or more commonly WGL4 for short, also known as the ''Pan-European character set'', is a character repertoire on Microsoft operating systems comprising 657 Unicode characters, two of them private use. Its purpose is to provide ...

. In

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

, a black heart ♥ and a white ♡ heart are defined:

References

{{German playing cards Card suits Heart symbols