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:
"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
Though the ache of nostalgia reverberates throughout, the songs remain intensely present and vulnerable in their reckoning with it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Arnaldi described how he became ill on Thursday night, waking up with stomach ache at about 1am.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
Gnawing, almost unbearable heartbreak acts as the catalyst for a layered analysis of the ways humans — or, in the case of “The Sheep Detectives,” humans and their woolly friends — ache to forget.
From Salon ● May 25, 2026
Something about this particular memory made her shake her head, stifle a laugh, and stare out the window with a wide smile—like the opposite of an ache, more like a relief.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
Others will experience mild symptoms such as fever, body aches and nausea.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
You may also get a mild fever, nausea, headache or muscle aches but these symptoms should disappear after one or two days.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
The Gibbses don’t like to focus on their aches and pains as they age.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
The researchers emphasized that their work focuses only on serious muscle disorders that result in hospital admission or death, not the milder muscle aches and pains that some people experience.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 30, 2026
My spine aches in pain, but Nansi’s not done.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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
"My heart ached, and I could only pray: 'God, please don't let that happen.'"
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2025
Her wrist ached badly, and the torch had burned down almost to her fingers.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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
After leaving an interview with Andy Cohen at SiriusXM’s studio, she slides back into her seat and removes her sky-high Louboutin stilettos, taking stock of her aching feet: “That’s going to suck later.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
Returning to camp we could barely lift our swollen and aching legs.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
