aching

American  

[ey-king] / ˈeɪ kɪŋ /

adjective

1. causing physical pain or distress.

   treatment for an aching back.

2. full of or precipitating nostalgia, grief, loneliness, etc.

---

Other Word Forms

• achingly
  adverb
• unaching
  adjective
• unachingly
  adverb

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.

Example Sentences

Markets finally got the cease-fire they have been aching for, and the subsequent relief rally was fast, furious, and jubilant—no matter that the truce is temporary and fragile.

From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026

There is also a feeling Maguire is happy in his surroundings too - that he is settled with his family in the north-west and has no aching desire to start again somewhere else just yet.

From BBC • Feb. 23, 2026

This isn’t bro country; it’s songs for aching hearts, for dreamers, for the lovelorn, steeped in pop, rock, Tejano and Mariachi.

From Salon • Dec. 26, 2025

I kept thinking about the quiet, aching gap between who she might have been raised to be and what her life became.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

Their bodies were bruised and aching from their pounding up and down in the bows, and they were exhausted from lack of sleep.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

Related Words

• hurting
• nagging
• sore
• throbbing