Word.ws English Dictionary

want

/wɒnt//wɑnt/

want verb: to wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave, hanker, or demand.

Verb

want (third-person singular simple present wants, present participle wanting, simple past and past participle wanted)

  1. (transitive) To wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave, hanker, or demand.
    • I want you as a friend, not a foe.
    • What do you want to eat? I want you to leave. I never wanted to go back to live with my mother.
    1. (broadly, transitive) To make it easy or tempting to do something undesirable, or to make it hard or challenging to refrain from doing it.
      • The game developers of Candy Crush want you to waste large, copious amounts of your money on in-game purchases to buy boosters and lives.
      • Depression wants you to feel like the world is dark and that you are not worthy of happiness. The first step to making your life better from this day forward is to stop believing these lies.
  2. (transitive) To wish, desire, or demand to see, have the presence of or do business with.
    • Ma’am, you are exactly the professional we want for this job.
    • Danish police want him for embezzlement.
  3. (intransitive) To desire (to experience desire); to wish.
    • You can leave if you want.
    • TYRION: You don't want it?
    • BRAN: I don't really want anymore.2019 May 5, "The Last of the Starks", Game of Thrones season 8 episode 4 (written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss)
  4. (colloquial, interrogative, second-person, usually, often future tense) To be advised to do or aim for something (compare should, ought).
    • You’ll want to repeat this three or four times to get the best result.
  5. (colloquial, transitive) To lack and be in need of or require (something, such as a noun or verbal noun).
    • The lady, it is said, will inherit a fortune of three hundred pounds a year, with two cool thousands left by an uncle, on her arriving at the age of twenty-one, of which she wants but a few months.1741, The Gentleman's and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, 1741-1794, page 559
    • Oh Jeanie, it will be hard, after every thing is ready for our happiness, if we should be sundered. It wants but a few days o' Martinmas, and then I maun enter on my new service on Loch Rannoch, where a bonny shieling is ready ...1839, Chambers's Journal, page 123
    Synonyms:
    need, be in need of
  6. (archaic, transitive) To have occasion for (something requisite or useful); to require or need.
    • Man wants but little, nor that little long.1742–1745, [Edward Young], The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC
    • Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long.1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC
  7. (dated, intransitive) To be lacking or deficient or absent.
    • There was something wanting in the play.
    • They of the Citie fought valiantly with Engines, Darts, Arrows: and when Stones wanted, they threw Silver, especially molten silver.1625, [Samuel] Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], (please specify |part=1 to 5), London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, page 404
  8. (dated, intransitive) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.
    • You have a gift, sir (thank your education), / Will never let you want.1605 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Ben: Ionson His Volpone or The Foxe, [London]: […] [George Eld] for Thomas Thorppe, published 1607, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page)
    • The paupers desperately want.
  9. (archaic, transitive) To lack and be without, to not have (something).
    • he that hath skill to be a pilot wants a ship; and he that could govern a commonwealth[…]wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section...
    • I observed […] that your whip wanted a lash to it.1711 July 14 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, July 4, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 108; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New...
    Synonyms:
    lack, be without
  10. (broadly, obsolete, transitive) To lack and perhaps be able or willing to do without.
    • […] which the Kings of Assyria had left for the maintenance of this Temple sacrifices, after the ouerthrow thereof, was shared among the Chaldzans; which they by this attempt were like to lose, and therefore were willing to want his presence.1625, [Samuel] Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], (please specify |part=1 to 5), London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, page 50
    • The Devil got notice that Grose was a-dying
      So whip! at the summons, old Satan came flying;
      But when he approached where poor Francis lay moaning,
      And saw each bed-post with its burthen a-groaning,
      Astonish'd, confounded, cries Satan-"By God,
      I'll want him, ere I take such a damnable load!"1789 Robert Burns: Epigram On Francis Grose The Antiquary
  11. To desire a romantic or (especially) sexual relationship with someone; to lust for.
    • Dang, girl! Your brother is gorgeous! I want him so bad!
    • Don't, don't you want me? / You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me / Don't, don't you want me? / You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me1981 November 27, Jo Callis, Philip Oakey, Philip Adrian Wright, “Don't You Want Me”, in Dare, performed by The Human League

Noun (1)

want (countable and uncountable, plural wants)

  1. (countable) A desire, wish, longing.
    • After a search which produced most of the things on our wants list, we went down to picnic on the shore in the sunshine-with a good stretch of shingle behind us over which no triffid could approach unheard.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 249
  2. (countable) Lack, absence, deficiency.
    • She showed a want of caution in renting her house to complete strangers.
    • [H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. (uncountable) Poverty.
    • Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.1713, Jonathan Swift, A Preface to Bishop Burnet's Introduction
  4. Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
    • Habitual superfluities become actual wants.1785, William Paley, Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy
  5. (UK) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.

Noun (2)

want (plural wants)

  1. (dialectal) A mole (Talpa europea).
    • Lic. She hath the ears of a want. / Pec. Doth she want ears?1592, John Lyly, Midas; republished in Charles Wentworth Dilke, editor, Old English Plays: Being a Selection from the Early Dramatic Writers, volume 1, London: Whittingham and Rowland, 1814

Proper noun capitalized: Want

Want

  1. A personification of want.

want meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

want in Hindi

to desire
चाहना cāhnā, इच्छा icchā
desire, wish, longing
इच्छा icchā, आशा āśā, कामना kāmnā, चाह cāh
lack (of)
नियाज niyāj
poverty — see also poverty
तंगी taṅgī, ग़रीबी ġarībī

want in Tamil

to desire
வேண்டு vēṇṭu

want in Marathi

want, yearning; lack
अपेक्षा apekṣā

want in Urdu

to desire
چاہْنا cāhnā
More languagesFewer languages
want in Bengali
চাওয়া caōẇa, ইচ্ছা iccha
want in Telugu
కోరుకొను kōrukonu, వాంఛించు vāñchiñcu, వాంఛ vāñcha, కోరిక kōrika
want in Malayalam
ആഗ്രഹിക്കുക āgrahikkuka, ആഗ്രഹം āgrahaṁ
want in Kannada
ಬಯಕೆ bayake, ಬಯಸು bayasu, ಇಚ್ಛೆ icche, ಅಕ್ಕರೆ akkare
want in Punjabi
ਲੋਚਣਾ locṇā, ਚਾਹੁਣਾ cāhuṇā, ਤਲਬ talab
want in Gujarati
જોઈવું joīvũ
want in Odia
ଚାହିବା cāhibā
want in Sanskrit
वष्टि vaṣṭi, इच्छति icchati
want in Sinhala
අඩුව පවතිනවා aḍuwa pawatinawā
want in Assamese
মন যোৱা mon züa, লগা loga
want in Nepali
चाहनु cāhanu
want in Pashto
غوښتل ǧox̌tël
want in Tagalog
magustohan, gusto, kagustuhan, ibig
want in Arabic
أَرَادَ ʔarāda, رَغِبَ raḡiba, شَاءَ šāʔa, عايز ʕāyez
want in Malay
mahu, ingin, hendak, kemahuan
want in Indonesian
mau, hendak, menginginkan
want in Persian
خْوَاسْتَن xwāstan, خَواسْتَن xāstan, خواسْتَن xâstan, آرزو ârezu
want in Thai
อยาก yàak, ต้องการ dtɔ̂ng-gaan, เอา ao
want in Vietnamese
muốn, cần
want in Myanmar
လို lui, အလို a.lui, ချင် hkyang, လိုချင် luihkyang

Examples of want in a sentence

  • That chair wants fixing and a clean.
  • What you really want is a good smack!
  • She wanted anything she needed.
  • He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it.2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
  • I want to find a supermarket. — Oh, okay.2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

All 40 example sentences with want

Synonyms of want

14 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of want

Forms of want

Verb
third-person singular presentwants
present participlewanting
past participlewanted
pastwanted
second-person singular present (archaic)wantest
second-person singular past (archaic)wantedst
third-person singular present (archaic)wanteth
alternative form (obsolete)waunt
Noun
pluralwants

Past tense of want: wanted

Plural of want: wants

Origin of want

From Middle English wanten (“to lack, to need”), from Old Norse vanta (“to lack”), from Proto-Germanic *wanatōną (“to be wanting, lack”), from *wanô (“lack, deficiency”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty”). Cognate with Middle High German wan (“not full, empty”), Middle Dutch wan (“empty, poor”), Old English wana (“want, lack, absence, deficiency”), Latin vanus (“empty”). See wan, wan-.

From Middle English wont (“mole”), from Old English wand, wond, from Proto-Germanic *wanduz.

Words formed from want

Phrases with want

Words that rhyme with want

Questions about want

What does want mean?
Want means to wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave, hanker, or demand.
What is want in Hindi?
Want in Hindi is चाहना (cāhnā), इच्छा (icchā), आशा (āśā). See Want meaning in Hindi.
How do you use want in a sentence?
That chair wants fixing and a clean.
What part of speech is want?
Want can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce want?
Want is pronounced /wɒnt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of want?
The past tense of want is wanted.

Words near want in the dictionary

  1. wanst
  2. wansta
  3. Wanstead
  4. Wansteads
  5. Wanstrow
  6. want
  7. want ad
  8. want ads
  9. want for nothing
  10. want in
  11. want list

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: want (page history and authors); Want (page history and authors); अपेक्षा (Marathi) (page history and authors); ಅಕ್ಕರೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਚਾਹੁਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); মন যোৱা (Assamese) (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-uk-to want.ogg, en-us-want.ogg.

Cite this entry: “want.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/want. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.