hunger
Syllables: hun·gerUK/ˈhʌŋɡə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈhʊŋɡə/
hunger noun: a need or compelling desire for food.
Noun
hunger (countable and uncountable, plural hungers)
Verb
hunger (third-person singular simple present hungers, present participle hungering, simple past and past participle hungered)
- To be in need of food.
- Therefore if thine enemie hunger, feed him: if he thirst, giue him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heape coales of fire on his head.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 12:20
- To have a desire (for); to long; to yearn.
- I hungered for your love.
- Blessed are they which doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse: for they shall be filled.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:6
- To make hungry; to famish.
hunger meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
hunger in Hindi
- need for food
- भूख bhūkh
hunger in Tamil
- need for food
- பசி paci
hunger in Marathi
- need for food
- भूख bhūkh
hunger in Urdu
- need for food
- بھوک bhūk
More languagesFewer languages
- hunger in Bengali
- খিদা khida, ভুখ bhukh, ক্ষুধা khudha, ভুক bhuk
- hunger in Telugu
- ఆకలి ākali
- hunger in Malayalam
- വിശപ്പ് viśappŭ, പശി paśi
- hunger in Kannada
- ಪಸಿ, ಹಸಿ, ಪಸಿವು, ಹಸಿವು
- hunger in Punjabi
- ਭੁੱਖ bhukkha
- hunger in Gujarati
- ભૂખ bhūkh
- hunger in Odia
- ଭୋକ bhoka
- hunger in Sanskrit
- बुभुक्षा bubhukṣā
- hunger in Assamese
- ভোক bhük
- hunger in Nepali
- भोक bhok
- hunger in Pashto
- لوږه lwᶕɀa
- hunger in Arabic
- جُوع jūʕ, رَغْبَة raḡba, تَعَطُّش taʕaṭṭuš, جَاعَ jāʕa
- hunger in Malay
- lapar
- hunger in Indonesian
- lapar
- hunger in Persian
- گرسنگی gorosnegi
- hunger in Thai
- ความหิว kwaam-hǐu
- hunger in Vietnamese
- đói, bị đói, thèm
- hunger in Myanmar
- အငတ် a.ngat, အဆာ a.hca
- Sindhi
- بک bkh
Examples of hunger in a sentence
- When gangsters bump my shit, can they feel my hunger?2003, “What Up Gangsta”, in Curtis Jackson, Rob Tewlow (lyrics), Reef Tewlow (music), Get Rich or Die Tryin', performed by 50 Cent, New...
- In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch.1993, The The, Love Is Stronger Than Death:
Antonyms of hunger
Forms of hunger
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hungers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | hungers |
| present participle | hungering |
| past participle | hungered |
| past | hungered |
Origin of hunger
From Middle English hunger, from Old English hungor (“hunger, desire; famine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hungruz, *hunhruz (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *kenk- (“to burn, smart, desire, hunger, thirst”). Cognate with West Frisian honger, hûnger (“hunger”), Dutch honger (“hunger”), German Low German Hunger (“hunger”), German Hunger (“hunger”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hunger (“hunger”), Faroese and Icelandic hungur (“hunger”).
From Middle English hungren, from Old English hyngran, hyngrian, ġehyngrian (“to be hungry”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungrijan, from Proto-Germanic *hungrijaną.
Words formed from hunger
- air hunger
- anti-hunger
- antihunger
- earth-hunger
- enhunger
- father hunger
- gold hunger
- hanger
- hungerbitten
- hungerer
- hungerful
- hunger is a good sauce
- hunger is the best pickle
- hunger is the best sauce
- hunger is the best seasoning
- hunger is the best spice
- hunger knock
- hungerless
- hungerly
- hunger moon
- hunger-pain
- hunger pain
- hunger pang
- hunger sauce
- hungersome
- hunger stone
- hunger strike
- hungry
- ravenous hunger
- sex-hunger
- shell hunger
- skin hunger
- ahungered
- anhungered
- forhungered
Phrases with hunger
Words that rhyme with hunger
Questions about hunger
- What does hunger mean?
- Hunger means a need or compelling desire for food.
- What is hunger in Hindi?
- Hunger in Hindi is भूख (bhūkh). See Hunger meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use hunger in a sentence?
- When gangsters bump my shit, can they feel my hunger?
- What part of speech is hunger?
- Hunger can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce hunger?
- Hunger is pronounced /ˈhʌŋɡə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of hunger?
- The plural of hunger is hungers.
Words near hunger in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hunger (page history and authors); പശി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); hunger (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਭੁੱਖ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ભૂખ (Gujarati) (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-hunger.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hunger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hunger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.