hunger
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
-
hungers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hungered,
past participle, past
-
hungering
present participle
-
to feel hunger; be hungry.
-
to have a strong desire.
verb (used with object)
-
hungers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hungered,
past participle, past
-
hungering
present participle
idioms
noun
-
a feeling of pain, emptiness, or weakness induced by lack of food
-
an appetite, desire, need, or craving
hunger for a woman
verb
-
to have or cause to have a need or craving for food
-
(intr; usually foll by for or after) to have a great appetite or desire (for)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hungersimple
-
hungerssimple
-
have hungeredperfect
-
has hungeredperfect
-
am hungeringprogressive
-
are hungeringprogressive
-
is hungeringprogressive
-
have been hungeringperfect progressive
-
has been hungeringperfect progressive
Past
-
hungeredsimple
-
had hungeredperfect
-
was hungeringprogressive
-
were hungeringprogressive
-
had been hungeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hunger
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English hungor; cognate with German Hunger
Explanation
Hunger is the sensation of needing — or wanting — to eat something. People use the same word to describe a hankering for a snack or for the more dire meaning of starvation, as in "world hunger." Hunger sometimes refers to an extreme lack of food, the equivalent to starvation: "We need to do something about hunger in poor communities." It can also simply mean your afternoon craving: "My daily hunger for chocolate was distracting me from my work." You can also hunger for things, both food (like when you hunger for French fries) and non-food things (like when you hunger for attention).
Vocabulary lists containing hunger
Nutrition - Introductory
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Nutrition - Middle School
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Nutrition - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He credits activist Sonam Wangchuk's 26-day hunger strike for galvanising support.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
The viewers’ hunger for easy comedic affirmation of human decency seems to be bottomless, so where’s the harm in going back to the original well, only this time with female athletes?
From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2026
The hunger for capital has pushed bond yields higher, even in sovereign debt.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
“It’s to children’s fiction that you turn if you want to feel awe and hunger and longing for justice,” she writes, “to make the old warhorse heart stamp again in its stall.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Long about then, I woke up with a hunger so bad, thought my stomach might turn on the rest of my insides for a little something to eat.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
Huge questions for a party that used to dominate Scottish politics and hungers for a way back to power at Holyrood.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
No one hungers for the bad old days—the infamous “Ford to City: Drop Dead” headline ran just months before PS1 opened—but it’s hard not to be nostalgic for the art world of the past.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
Wong hungers for familiarity with her Chinese name, the memory of which has become so faint she calls upon her mother to repeat it to her.
From New York Times ● May 14, 2023
The series sticks with that impetus while expanding our view into the part of Ellie that hungers for family and true care.
From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2023
“Ghosts are human hungers, and humans don’t have to be right.”
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
Malcom McLean, a New Jersey commercial shipper who championed the new idea of prepacking cargo into big metal boxes, hungered for a Pentagon contract.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Election administrators in many states have long hungered for better access to federal information on citizenship status.
From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2026
That added to a quasi “gold rush” among investors who understandably hungered for a piece of the action.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 3, 2026
But business snapped back quickly, as audiences tired of virtual events and hungered to return to in-person screenings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2024
Begin when all the rest who left behind them headlong death in battle or at sea had long ago returned, while he alone still hungered for home and wife.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
“Does this mean I get to work more?” she asks, hungering for starring roles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
On top of that, investors hungering for a new CEO had hoped Cornell’s replacement would arrive from outside Target; instead, the board picked a 20-year company veteran.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2025
“Mr. Kennedy is the one person who has the qualities that can bring about the unity that most Americans are hungering for,” Mr. Kucinich said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2023
It has also served as a watershed moment for the business-news landscape, making a group of internet influencers go-to sources for people hungering for news of FTX and SBF, as Bankman-Fried is known.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 5, 2023
But, of course, it was my body, hungering, biding its time against the tyranny of my spirit.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
