longing
Americannoun
-
strong, persistent desire or craving, especially for something unattainable or distant.
filled with longing for home.
- Synonyms:
- aspiration
- Antonyms:
- apathy
-
an instance of this.
a sudden longing to see old friends.
adjective
noun
adjective
Related Words
See desire.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of longing
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English langung; equivalent to long 2 + -ing 1
Explanation
A longing is a strong feeling of need or desire for someone or something. If you're stuck in detention and all of your friends are outside enjoying a sunny day, you might be looking out the window with longing. A longing describes an unfulfilled desire. The days might feel long as long as you are longing to see someone you love, if that person is far away. You might be longing for your mother's home-made chicken soup, if you are sick and far from home. Or perhaps you are a pregnant woman, wide awake and longing for pickles and ice-cream at four in the morning. Let's hope there's a twenty-four hour deli open somewhere to help satisfy your longing.
Vocabulary lists containing longing
Beowulf vocabulary
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Copper Sun
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Out of the Dust
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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.
Longing to escape, they take out their frustrations on the symbol for all of that—the much-maligned office printer.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 29, 2025
Longing to return to those days is a worthwhile goal.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 31, 2024
Lindsay Posner, who directed the play The End Of Longing, written by and starring Perry, paid tribute to him on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
From BBC • Oct. 30, 2023
Longing quickens the pulse of these lines: their singsong regularity followed by sudden disruption, a conscious stumbling as Grimké’s first-person speaker makes her passion plain, before returning to the rigid music of the form.
From New York Times • Mar. 3, 2023
Longing and elation, anguish and joy—they were all there, sometimes commingling in the same canvas.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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.
