thirst
UK/θɜːst//θɝst/
thirst noun: a sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (such as fear, excitement, etc.) which stops the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane.
Noun
thirst (countable and uncountable, plural thirsts)
- A sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (such as fear, excitement, etc.) which stops the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane.
- We developed a great thirst during our hike.
- He had quite a thirst on and so headed to his favourite Dublin pub.
- The condition producing the sensation of thirst.
- If you go out in the desert for long without water, the thirst can drive you mad.
- "We haven't one chance for life in a hundred thousand if we don't find food and water upon Caprona. This water coming out of the cliff is not salt; but neither is it fit to drink, though each of us has drunk. It is fair to assume that inland the river is fed by pure streams, that there are fruits...1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...
- A want and eager desire (for something); a craving or longing.
- She had a real thirst for news and that greatly helped her career.
- Sexual lust.
- He had a thirst for her and she had the same for him.
Verb
thirst (third-person singular simple present thirsts, present participle thirsting, simple past and past participle thirsted)
thirst meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
thirst in Hindi
- dryness
- प्यास pyās, तृष्णा tŕṣṇā, पिपासा pipāsā, तृषा tŕṣā, उदन्या udanyā
thirst in Tamil
- dryness
- தாகம் tākam
thirst in Marathi
- dryness
- तहान tahān
thirst in Urdu
- dryness
- پیاس pyās
- figuratively
- پیاس pyās
More languagesFewer languages
- thirst in Bengali
- তৃষ্ণা triśna, পিয়াস piẏaś
- thirst in Telugu
- దాహం dāhaṁ
- thirst in Malayalam
- ദാഹം dāhaṁ
- thirst in Kannada
- ಬಾಯಾರಿಕೆ bāyārike, ಡಿಸೈರ್ ḍisair
- thirst in Punjabi
- ਤੇਹ teh, ਪਿਆਸ piāsa, تریہہ treh
- thirst in Gujarati
- તરસ taras, પ્યાસ pyās
- thirst in Odia
- ଶୋଷ śoṣa, ତୃଷା truṣā
- thirst in Sanskrit
- see Thesaurus:तृष्णा, तृष्णा tṛṣṇā, तृष्यति tṛṣyati
- thirst in Assamese
- পিয়াহ piah
- thirst in Nepali
- तिर्खा tirkhā
- thirst in Pashto
- تشنک tošnak
- thirst in Tagalog
- uhaw
- thirst in Arabic
- عَطَش ʕaṭaš, ظَمَأ ẓamaʔ, عَطِشَ ʕaṭiša, ظَمِئَ ẓamiʔa
- thirst in Malay
- kehausan, kedahagaan
- thirst in Indonesian
- haus
- thirst in Persian
- تشنگی tešnegi
- thirst in Thai
- ความกระหาย kwaam-grà-hǎai
- thirst in Vietnamese
- khát
- thirst in Myanmar
- အငတ် a.ngat
Examples of thirst in a sentence
- Shall we lie out here and die of thirst and starvation with a land of plenty possibly only a few hundred yards away?1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp....
- My soul thirsteth for […] the living God.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 42:2:
- Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:6:
Synonyms of thirst
Forms of thirst
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | thirsts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | thirsts |
| present participle | thirsting |
| past participle | thirsted |
| past | thirsted |
Origin of thirst
From Middle English thirst, thurst, from Old English þurst, from Proto-West Germanic *þurstu, from Proto-Germanic *þurstuz, from Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“dry”). Germanic cognates include Old High German thurst, Middle High German durst, German Durst, Old Saxon thurst, Old Dutch thursti, Middle Dutch dorst, dorste, Dutch dorst, Old Norse þorsti (Swedish törst, Icelandic þorsti, Faroese tosti, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål tørst, Norwegian Nynorsk tørste). Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek τέρσομαι (térsomai), Albanian djersë (“sweat”), Sanskrit तृष्णा (tṛṣṇā, “desire; thirst”), Sanskrit तृष्यति (tṛ́ṣyati), Latin terra, Latin torridus.
Words formed from thirst
Phrases with thirst
Words that rhyme with thirst
Questions about thirst
- What does thirst mean?
- Thirst means a sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (such as fear, excitement, etc.) which stops the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane.
- What is thirst in Hindi?
- Thirst in Hindi is प्यास (pyās), तृष्णा (tŕṣṇā), पिपासा (pipāsā). See Thirst meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use thirst in a sentence?
- Shall we lie out here and die of thirst and starvation with a land of plenty possibly only a few hundred yards away?
- What part of speech is thirst?
- Thirst can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce thirst?
- Thirst is pronounced /θɜːst/ (UK).
- What is the plural of thirst?
- The plural of thirst is thirsts.
Words near thirst in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thirst (page history and authors); تریہہ (Punjabi) (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-thirst.ogg.
Cite this entry: “thirst.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thirst. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.