Word.ws English Dictionary

wanting

UK/ˈwɒntɪŋ//ˈwɑntɪŋ/

wanting adjective: that wants or desires. Also the present participle and gerund of want.

Adjective

wanting (comparative more wanting, superlative most wanting)

  1. That wants or desires.
  2. Absent or lacking.
    • Already Cæſar
      Has ravaged more than half the Globe, and ſees
      Mankind grown thin by his deſtructive Sword:
      Should he go further, Numbers would be wanting
      To form new Battels, and ſupport his Crimes.1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1
    • […] but where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Modern Library Edition, published 1995, page 171
  3. Deficient.
    • 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

Preposition

wanting

  1. Without, except, but.
  2. Less, short of, minus.

Noun

wanting (countable and uncountable, plural wantings)

  1. The 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

Also used as

wanting is also the present participle and gerund of want.

wanting meaning in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada

wanting in Hindi

चाह रहे हैं

wanting in Telugu

కోరుకోవడం

wanting in Malayalam

ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നു

wanting in Kannada

ಬಯಸಿದೆ
More languagesFewer languages
wanting in Punjabi
ਚਾਹੁੰਦੇ ਹਨ
wanting in Sanskrit
ऊन ūna
wanting in Persian
کم kam

Examples of wanting in a sentence

  • Not wanting to be pressed for details, public relations gave a wishy-washy answer.
  • The President will arrive at 10.00 — Will she be wanting lunch?
  • She lived her final year in complete isolation, not wanting to see anybody.

All 40 example sentences with wanting

Forms of wanting

Adjective
comparativemore wanting
superlativemost wanting
Noun
pluralwantings

Origin of wanting

From Middle English wantyng, wantynge, wantand, equivalent to want + -ing.

From Middle English wantyng, wantynge, equivalent to want + -ing.

Words formed from wanting

Phrases with wanting

Questions about wanting

What does wanting mean?
Wanting means that wants or desires.
What is wanting in Hindi?
Wanting in Hindi is चाह रहे हैं. See Wanting meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is wanting?
Wanting can be an adjective, a preposition or a noun.
How do you pronounce wanting?
Wanting is pronounced /ˈwɑntɪŋ/ (US).

Words near wanting in the dictionary

  1. wantful
  2. wantfulness
  3. wanthriven
  4. wanties
  5. wantin'
  6. wanting
  7. wanting for nothing
  8. wanting in
  9. wanting no part of
  10. wanting one's bumps feeling
  11. wanting one's bumps felt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wanting (page history and authors); wanting (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wanting (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wanting (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wanting (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wanting (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-wanting.ogg.

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