ache
/eɪk/
ache verb: to suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed. Also the rare spelling of aitch.
Verb
ache (third-person singular simple present aches, present participle aching, simple past ached or (obsolete) oke, past participle ached or (obsolete) oke or (obsolete) aken)
- To suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed.
- My feet were aching for days after the marathon.
- Every muscle in his body ached.
- To cause someone or something to suffer pain.
Noun (1)
ache (plural aches)
- Continued dull pain, as distinguished from sudden twinges, or spasmodic pain.
- You may suffer a minor ache in your side.
- The aches and pains died down after taking an analgesic.
- Emotional suffering causing discomfort and physical pain.
Noun (2)
IPA/eɪt͡ʃ/
ache (plural aches)
Noun (3) capitalized: AChE
AChE (uncountable)
- Abbreviation of acetylcholinesterase.
- Coordinate term: BuChE
Proper noun capitalized: Ache
Ache
- A language spoken by the Yi people of South-Western China.
Also used as
ache is also the rare spelling of aitch.
ache meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Assamese
ache in Hindi
- be in pain
- दर्द करना dard karnā
- dull pain
- दर्द dard
ache in Urdu
- dull pain
- دَرْد dard
ache in Punjabi
- dull pain
- ਪੀੜ pīṛ, پِیڑ pīṛ
ache in Assamese
- be in pain
- বিষোৱা bixüa
More languagesFewer languages
- ache in Arabic
- تَأَلَّمَ taʔallama, وَجِعَ wajiʕa, أَلَم ʔalam, وَجَع wajaʕ
- ache in Malay
- sengal
- ache in Indonesian
- sakit, nyeri
- ache in Thai
- เจ็บ jèp, ความเจ็บ kwaam-jèp
- ache in Vietnamese
- nhức, đau, sự đau đớn
- ache in Myanmar
- ကိုက် kuik
Examples of ache in a sentence
- The sacked quarterback was hurting bad. His back ached so bad that he had to lie down.
- She felt like she had the flu, with aches and fever.
- He ached for her as he'd never ached for any woman.
Synonyms of ache
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of ache
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | aches |
| present participle | aching |
| past | ached |
| past participle | ached |
| past (obsolete) | oke |
| past participle (obsolete) | oke |
| past participle (obsolete) | aken |
| alternative form (obsolete) | ake |
| Noun | |
| plural | aches |
Origin of ache
Inherited from Middle English aken (verb), and ache (noun), from Old English acan (verb) (from Proto-West Germanic *akan, from Proto-Germanic *akaną (“to ache”)) and æċe (noun) (from Proto-West Germanic *aki, from Proto-Germanic *akiz), traditionally explained as from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂égos. Cognate with Saterland Frisian eeke, ääke (“to ache, fester”), Low German aken, achen, äken (“to hurt, ache”), German Low German Eek (“inflammation”), North Frisian akelig, æklig (“terrible, miserable, sharp, intense”), West Frisian aaklik (“nasty, horrible, dismal, dreary”), Dutch akelig (“nasty, horrible”). The verb was originally strong, conjugating for tense like take (e.g. I ake, I oke, I have aken), but gradually became weak during Middle English; the noun was originally pronounced as /eɪt͡ʃ/ as spelled (compare breach, from break). Historically the verb was spelled ake, and the noun ache (even after the form /eɪk/ started to become common for the noun; compare again break which is now also a noun). The verb came to be spelled like the noun when lexicographer Samuel Johnson mistakenly assumed that it derived from Ancient Greek ἄχος (ákhos, “pain”) due to the similarity in form and...
From Middle English ache, from Old French ache, from Latin apium (“celery”). Reinforced by modern French ache.
Representing the pronunciation of the letter H.
Words formed from ache
- lovage
- smallage
- ache for
- achage
- acheful
- acheless
- achelike
- acher
- aches and pains
- achesome
- achy
- assache
- backache
- ballache
- ball ache
- bellyache
- boneache
- dickache
- earache
- eyeache
- faceache
- face-ache
- fingerache
- headache
- heartache
- hot ache
- knee ache
- neckache
- psychache
- pussyache
- sideache
- soulache
- stomachache
- tailache
- teethache
- throatache
- toothache
- tummyache
- tummy ache
- unache
Phrases with ache
Words that rhyme with ache
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- flake
- slake
- stake
- wake
- sheikh
- strake
- betake
- mosaic
- blake
- fake
- jake
- opaque
- forsake
- lake
- mistake
- raik
- retake
- sake
- claik
- hake
- partake
- quake
- Spirit Lake
- steak
- remake
- spake
- tea break
- wrake
- ake
- alphamosaic
- ashake
- Choctaw Lake
- crake
- Deer Lake
- demake
- eastern green drake
- glass snake
- laik
- moonquake
- Mud Lake
- nake
- overtake
- parliament cake
- prison break
- radiopaque
- rattlesnake
- reshake
- sodaic
Questions about ache
- What does ache mean?
- Ache means to suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed.
- What is ache in Hindi?
- Ache in Hindi is दर्द करना (dard karnā), दर्द (dard). See Ache meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ache?
- Ache can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ache?
- Ache is pronounced /eɪk/.
- What is the past tense of ache?
- The past tense of ache is ached.
Words near ache in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ache (page history and authors); AChE (page history and authors); Ache (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ache.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ache1.wav.
Cite this entry: “ache.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ache. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.