hunger
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
-
to feel hunger; be hungry.
-
to have a strong desire.
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
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a feeling of pain, emptiness, or weakness induced by lack of food
-
an appetite, desire, need, or craving
hunger for a woman
verb
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to have or cause to have a need or craving for food
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(intr; usually foll by for or after) to have a great appetite or desire (for)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hungersimple
-
hungerssimple
-
have hungeredperfect
-
has hungeredperfect
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am hungeringprogressive
-
are hungeringprogressive
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is hungeringprogressive
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have been hungeringperfect progressive
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has been hungeringperfect progressive
Past
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hungeredsimple
-
had hungeredperfect
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was hungeringprogressive
-
were hungeringprogressive
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had been hungeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hunger
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English hungor; cognate with German Hunger
Explanation
Hunger is the sensation of needing — or wanting — to eat something. People use the same word to describe a hankering for a snack or for the more dire meaning of starvation, as in "world hunger." Hunger sometimes refers to an extreme lack of food, the equivalent to starvation: "We need to do something about hunger in poor communities." It can also simply mean your afternoon craving: "My daily hunger for chocolate was distracting me from my work." You can also hunger for things, both food (like when you hunger for French fries) and non-food things (like when you hunger for attention).
Vocabulary lists containing hunger
Nutrition - Introductory
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Nutrition - Middle School
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Nutrition - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
But cosplayers can also embody everything from fast food brands, internet browsers and memes to intangible ideas like gravity or hunger, while also experimenting with gender.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
More than a 100 detainees were on a hunger strike over conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
Earlier research in mammals suggested that certain neuropeptides, which are small molecules used by the brain to communicate, may have shifted from regulating hunger to encouraging parental behavior.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
"He has been on multiple hunger strikes and we have often been kept in the dark about this."
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
An Irishman by birth, the forty-year-old Shackleton was a showman with a hunger for polar glory.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
Huge questions for a party that used to dominate Scottish politics and hungers for a way back to power at Holyrood.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
They are all citizens of winter, prey to the daily hungers of real life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
“Yet, our nation hungers for their radical song. Let us not sit back silently...”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2023
The series sticks with that impetus while expanding our view into the part of Ellie that hungers for family and true care.
From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2023
Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Malcom McLean, a New Jersey commercial shipper who championed the new idea of prepacking cargo into big metal boxes, hungered for a Pentagon contract.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
That added to a quasi “gold rush” among investors who understandably hungered for a piece of the action.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 3, 2026
But business snapped back quickly, as audiences tired of virtual events and hungered to return to in-person screenings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2024
But beneath the bravado lies a wounded child — the boy who yearned for approval, who hungered for his father’s love but never got it.
From Salon ● May 6, 2024
I hungered to share the dominant assumptions of my time and act upon them.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
On top of that, investors hungering for a new CEO had hoped Cornell’s replacement would arrive from outside Target; instead, the board picked a 20-year company veteran.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2025
Be that as it may, the question remains: Is Broadway hungering for two jukebox musicals based on “Romeo and Juliet”?
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2022
“The country is very volatile and hungering for change,” he said.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2022
But before she drops the curtain on “Better Things,” is she perhaps hungering for that Emmy win?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2022
He had awakened on this morning with a hungering need to bark out orders and have them carried out with speed and efficiency.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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.
