Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use wanting in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, preposition, noun

Wanting means that wants or desires. Example: “Not wanting to be pressed for details, public relations gave a wishy-washy answer.”

Examples of wanting by meaning

adjectiveAbsent or lacking.

  • Discal black dot small or wanting.1902, Proceedings: Entomological papers, volumes 25-26, United States National Museum, page 201

adjectiveDeficient.

  • Kate felt privileged to have been permitted to speak through it and she was glad that, as before, she had been judged and not found wanting1993, Dana Stabenow, Dead in the Water, →ISBN, page 151

nounThe state of wanting something; desire.

  • Choice occurs only when we experience a conflict of wantings.2004, Joseph H. Casey S.J., Life, Love, and Sex

More sentences with wanting

  • Not wanting to be pressed for details, public relations gave a wishy-washy answer.From the entry wishy-washy
  • The President will arrive at 10.00 — Will she be wanting lunch?From the entry will
  • She lived her final year in complete isolation, not wanting to see anybody.From the entry isolation
  • It was difficult to stay in character, because I kept wanting to laugh.From the entry in character
  • Me wanting to spend time with other people is a big trigger point for him.From the entry trigger point
  • Jill holds her grandfather to her own standards and finds them wanting.From the entry hold to
  • There was something wanting in the play.From the entry want
  • You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.From the entry weigh
  • The box office was besieged by fans wanting tickets.From the entry besiege
  • Wanting to please both sides, he straddled the issue.From the entry straddle
  • He keeps telling me about wanting to make a move, but he hasn't worked up to acting on it yet.From the entry act on
  • If you understock the shop, you'll run out of goods while there are still customers wanting to buy them.From the entry understock
  • Wanting to cool off after a long hike, the women decided to stop and skinny dip under the waterfall.From the entry skinny dip
  • He languidly waved his limp wrist, glad to see us, but not wanting to expend the energy to let us know that.From the entry languidly
  • So inflation at the moment has little to do with us wanting more.2022 July 19, Jessica Mizrahi, “With inflation rising in Australia, an uncomfortable truth is we waste a lot of what we have”, in The…. From the entry hip pocket
  • While his fingers retreated, the ache she felt in her apex had only grown, wanting more.2021 December 9, Catherine Edward, Husband Undercover: A Phantom Agent Novel, Catherine Edward, →ISBN. From the entry apex
  • He tried to speak in an ariose, teasing manner, not wanting to offend his charge.2016, Bill Broun, Night of the Animals: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Ecco Press, →ISBN. From the entry ariose
  • Or not wanting to waste time on someone who was always "micin".2015 December 9, Jack Gauntlett, “Bermudian sayings always raise a smile”, in The Royal Gazette, archived from the original on 11 Dec 2022. From the entry mice
  • It's so called because it resembles the wide-open mouth of a baby bird wanting to be fed.2014 November 8, Jeff Howell, “The value of keeping the pressure up”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 07 May…. From the entry birdsmouth
  • When wanting to show intimacy with the audience, one will advance in this direction.2014, Ken Ludden, Academy Method: Introduction to Teacher Training, →ISBN, page 149. From the entry fifth wall
  • Sandra Calkins, Enrico Ille and Richard Rottenburg Civic orders in the Sudans are wanting.2014, Calkins, Sandra, Ille, Enrico, Emerging Orders in the Sudans, Langaa RPCIG, →ISBN, page 1. From the entry Sudans
  • He had a pot-belly and piggy eyes and clearly had had enough of performing apodyopsis, wanting more.2012 May 27, John D, “{ASSM} Growing Pains: Broken Promises (MF, teen, exhib, flirt, f-solo, toys)”, in alt.sex.stories (Usenet). From the entry apodyopsis
  • It's about wanting approval from our children, wanting them to grow up without obliterating us.2010 September 28, Annalee Newitz, “Why do We Keep Falling in Love with Cyborgs?”, in io9, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2019. From the entry nuke
  • Like the Australian sundowners, some of these trampers were suspected of never wanting to find a job.2010, John Hirst, Looking for Australia: Historical Essays, page 60. From the entry sundowner
  • Not wanting to lose his favorite sword, Orivon hung on grimly to its hilt.2008, Ed Greenwood, “Great Slaughtering Battle”, in Dark Vengeance (A Novel of Niflheim; 2), New York, N.Y.: Tor, →ISBN, page 223. From the entry drawing back
  • And some mornings she wakes up with just her jim-jam bottoms on, wanting to be a dog.2007, Duncan McLaren, Looking for Enid: The Mysterious and Inventive Life of Enid Blyton, Portobello Books, →ISBN, page 280. From the entry jim-jam
  • Wanting to pull the players she pulled, and wishing they had the looks she had.2005, Jr. Aaron Bryant, Cupid Is Stupid, page 19. From the entry clock
  • That’s why to be rejected in love was so cataclysmic: one had been judged and found wanting.2005, Edmund White, My Women, archived from the original on 04 Dec 2012. From the entry cataclysmic
  • Whatever the reason, you've found yourself wanting an Atari once again.2005, Chris Kohler, Retro Gaming Hacks, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 8. From the entry atari
  • If you're interested in kookology as it's formally known, you'll be wanting to check out alt.usenet.kooks.2004 February 23, Doktor DynaSoar, “Re: Spot the Loonie!”, in alt.conspiracy (Usenet). From the entry kookology
  • I don't see how wanting people to post in a clear manner violates Usenetiquette.2004 November 4, Richard Bonner, “Re: Educational Levels (Was: "Re: I know...wrong group...i thought it was HFX.FORSALE")”, in hfx.general…. From the entry Usenetiquette
  • One of the main elements of 'decidophobia' is wanting to do too much at once.2003, Margaret Alston, Wendy Bowles, Research for Social Workers: An Introduction to Methods, →ISBN. From the entry decidophobia
  • "There's such an onslaught of people wanting information, people wanting this, that and the other," she says.2001 November 12, Andrea Sachs, “Out Of Africa”, in Time. From the entry this, that, and the other
  • I inhale slowly not wanting to miss any ounce of nature’s freely provided version of smell-o-rama.2000 September, L. B. Sedlacek, Suicide Pumpkins: A Love Story, Xlibris Corporation, page 86. From the entry smell-o-rama
  • BUt now, not wanting to drift from my intentions I look to some notes I made yesterday.2000, John Christopher Jones, The Internet and Everyone, page 123. From the entry misfinger
  • Michele, I agree with you about not wanting to see Nick and Natalie married with kids.1999 September 29, Shomeret, “Ramblings of a bored person”, in alt.tv.forever-knight (Usenet), archived from the original on 27 Jan 2026. From the entry NatPacker
  • I’ll be fine,” he said quickly, not wanting to get into a tangent about his health.1998, Keith R[obert] A[ndreassi] DeCandido, José R. Nieto, “Thursday, 3:05 p.m.”, in Spider-Man: Venom’s Wrath, New York, N.Y.: Byron…. From the entry whadja

Meaning of wanting

  1. adjective That wants or desires.
  2. adjective Absent or lacking.
  3. adjective Deficient.

Full definition of wanting

Questions about wanting in a sentence

How do you use wanting in a sentence?
Wanting is used as an adjective, preposition and noun. For example: “Not wanting to be pressed for details, public relations gave a wishy-washy answer.”
What is a short sentence with wanting?
“Discal black dot small or wanting.”
What does wanting mean?
Wanting means that wants or desires.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wanting (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use wanting in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/wanting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.