hearth

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The floor of a fireplace, usually extending into a room and paved with brick, flagstone, or cement.
• noun A fireplace.
• noun Family life; the home.
• noun The lowest part of a blast furnace or cupola, from which the molten metal flows.
• noun The bottom of a reverberatory furnace, where ore is exposed to the flame.
• noun The fireplace or brazier of a blacksmith's forge.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun That part of the floor of a room on which the fire is made, or upon or above which a receptacle for the fire rests: generally a pavement or floor of brick or stone below an opening in the chimney, as in a fireplace.
• noun The fireside; the domestic circle; the home.
• noun In metallurgy: The floor in a reverberatory furnace on which the ore is exposed to the flame. See furnace.
• noun The lowest part of a blast-furnace, through which the metal descends to the crucible. See furnace.
• noun A bloomery.
• noun Nautical, the grate and apparatus for cooking on board ship.
• noun In soldering: An ordinary brazier or chafing-dish containing charcoal.
• noun An iron box, about 2 feet by 1 foot 6 inches deep, sunk in the middle of a flat iron plate or table, measuring about 4 feet by 3 feet.
• noun In glass manufacturing See flattening-hearth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.
• noun The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.
• noun (Metal. & Manuf.) The floor of a furnace, on which the material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a melting furnace, into which the melted material settles.
• noun (Metal.) fragments of lead ore ejected from the furnace by the blast.
• noun tax formerly laid in England on hearths, each hearth (in all houses paying the church and poor rates) being taxed at two shillings; -- called also chimney money, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A brick, stone or cement floor to a fireplace or oven.
• noun An open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire may be built.
• noun The lowest part of a metallurgical furnace.
• noun A symbol for home or family life.
• noun paganism A household or group following the modern pagan faith of Heathenry.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out into a room)
• noun home symbolized as a part of the fireplace
• noun an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built