aching
Americanadjective
-
causing physical pain or distress.
treatment for an aching back.
-
full of or precipitating nostalgia, grief, loneliness, etc.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of aching
Middle English word dating back to 1200–1250; see origin at ache, -ing 2
Explanation
Anything that's aching is sore and painful. After a hike up the side of a steep mountain or a long day walking around a city, you'll want to rest your aching feet. To ache is to feel a dull, constant pain, and aching things ache. Both words stem from the Old English acan, "suffer pain," from a Proto-Indo-European root that might be imitative of a groaning sound, the kind of noise you may make when you have an aching head or an aching tooth. Things are sometimes described as aching in a figurative way, too, when they're full of sorrow, like an aching heart or an aching loneliness.
Vocabulary lists containing aching
"Brothers in Hope"
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Gordon Lightfoot (1938–2023) Tribute List
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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.
Some go their whole lives searching for it, aching to find where they belong, or what gives them purpose.
From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2026
Showing her aching vulnerability, it's about a bank clerk with flaming locks of auburn hair who flirted with her husband.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
By the second day, her neck was aching and she was taking migraine medication to ward off headaches caused by intense microscope light.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Plus, Jessie, still voiced with such beautiful feeling by Joan Cusack, owns “Toy Story 5,” with the movie even revisiting the aching piano notes of “When She Loved Me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
The numbness throbbed in his body, and he knew he’d be aching the next day when he woke up.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
