Daily AncestorEnlargement of the heart
Enlargement of the heart meant a heart grown too large, its wall thickened or its chambers stretched, usually by valve disease or high blood pressure.
An enlarged heart is usually the result of conditions that make the heart work harder, such as valve disease, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. The 1911 Britannica describes how doctors felt the displaced heartbeat to judge hypertrophy, a thickening of the heart wall.
On a death record, enlargement of the heart names a sign the doctor found, not the underlying disease. Hypertrophy of the heart, a thickened heart wall, is one kind of enlargement; a stretched, dilated heart is another.
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Daily Ancestor. "Enlargement of the heart." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/enlargement-of-the-heart. Last checked 2026-10-10.