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:
That ignores the costs—and it ignores the far larger, cheaper and faster gains from fighting disease, hunger and poverty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
As long as fans still hunger to see their favorite artists live, it seems likely that singers will keep trying to clamber back onto stage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
While they might be energy hungry, there are ways in which electricity system operators can manage that hunger so that supply and demand are matched.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
"Conversely, the sweeter milk chocolate scent acts more like a hedonic reward cue, enhancing training volume by creating a highly pleasant sensory environment rather than by shifting basic metabolic hunger signals."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
Out in the hog pen, Sloppy Ann was squealing with hunger.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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
“In so many ways, it felt like the actualization of a lot of these more private hungers and more private desires for sound and experience and collectivity,” she said.
From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 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
To starve in order to learn about my environment was irrational, but so were my hungers.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
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
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
Enjoying heavy rotation on MTV on the wings of “Dancing with Myself” and “White Wedding,” his audience hungered for more.
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2024
He wanted to see a movie; his senses hungered for it.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
Her own audience, primed to look for conspiracy theories in the wake of a high-profile murder, had been hungering for Owens to challenge the widely accepted version of events.
From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2026
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
“Our audiences are hungering for an authentic experience, the work of art placed in front of them,” Mr. Steward said.
From New York Times ● Oct. 20, 2022
But before she drops the curtain on “Better Things,” is she perhaps hungering for that Emmy win?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2022
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.
