ache
Americanverb (used without object)
-
aches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ached,
past participle, past
-
aching
present participle
-
to have or suffer a continuous, dull pain.
His whole body ached.
- Synonyms:
- hurt
-
to feel great sympathy, pity, or the like.
Her heart ached for the starving animals.
-
to feel eager; yearn; long.
She ached to be the champion. He's just aching to get even.
noun
-
aches
plural
verb
-
to feel, suffer, or be the source of a continuous dull pain
-
to suffer mental anguish
noun
Synonym Usage
See pain.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
achesimple
-
achessimple
-
have achedperfect
-
has achedperfect
-
am achingprogressive
-
are achingprogressive
-
is achingprogressive
-
have been achingperfect progressive
-
has been achingperfect progressive
Past
-
achedsimple
-
had achedperfect
-
was achingprogressive
-
were achingprogressive
-
had been achingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ache
before 900; (v.) Middle English aken, Old English acan; perhaps metaphoric use of earlier unattested sense “drive, impel” (compare Old Norse aka, cognate with Latin agere, Greek ágein ); (noun) derivative of the v.
Explanation
An ache is a dull, lingering pain. An ache in your calves after your morning jog might mean you didn't stretch enough before you started running. You might describe your discomfort as a head ache or a stomach ache — in either case, there's a throbbing or continuous pain. A non-physical hurt can also be called an ache, and you can use the word as a verb in either case: "It feels like my heart will ache forever, since my sweet cat died." The Old English root is acan, "to suffer pain," possibly from an imitative Proto-Indo-European word that sounds like a groan.
Vocabulary lists containing ache
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:
Still, her transformation of Parton’s clouded sunshine into a feral ache is stunning.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
"It's tough work... the hardest part is carrying the seaweed back. It's very heavy and your shoulders ache afterwards."
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Mr. Barragán, a reporter and researcher for the New York Times based in Madrid, is good on the small ache that makes the whole enterprise possible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
Arnaldi described how he became ill on Thursday night, waking up with stomach ache at about 1am.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
But the only remnant left was the burning ache in my throat and the stench of spent gunpowder and swampy water muddling in my nostrils.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
People infected with typhus typically develop symptoms within one to two weeks, which may include a fever, headache, rash and body aches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
She is in her late 70s and complains of nagging aches and pains, neuropathy, fatigue, anxiety, and occasional changes in her weight.
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026
However, around one in five people who are infected develop a fever and moderate symptoms such as body aches, vomiting and diarrhea.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
These include repeatedly waking up throughout the night to relieve himself and "stomach aches real bad".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
I take off my glasses, wipe my palms across my eyes, and let them close, grateful the painkillers will dull all the aches with sleep.
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
She wrote that her heart ached most looking at a poster her three children made when they were young.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Before Edward and Bella took over the world, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” viewers ached for David Boreanaz’s Angel and James Marsters’ Spike, centuries-old bros who fall for a very special high school blonde.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
Those ached more than stung and left me completely voiceless for the following 24 hours.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2026
He was tired and his body ached, he says, but the boss was “mean” and ordered him to get back to work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2025
He had never caused such a commotion before, not even the night last week when his ear ached and he cried for a whole hour.
From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry
My aching nostalgia isn’t limited to how the White House used to operate.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
The morning after losing to Federer, an aching Willis limped to the shower at 4:30am to get ready for an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
At the film’s aching core is the romantic tether between the boys that refuses to die even in the face of gory attacks, painful betrayals and even uncertainty among the two of them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
My feet were still aching when I boarded my flight home the next day.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
The facts overwhelmed me and wrenched my already aching belly.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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.
