hunger

American  

[huhng-ger] / ˈhʌŋ gər /

noun

1. a compelling need or desire for food.

2. the painful sensation or state of weakness caused by the need of food.

   to collapse from hunger.

3. a shortage of food; famine.

4. a strong or compelling desire or craving.

   hunger for power.

   Synonyms:

   itch, lust, greed, appetite

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verb (used without object)

1. to feel hunger; be hungry.

2. to have a strong desire.

verb (used with object)

1. Rare. to subject to hunger; starve.

idioms

1. from hunger, deplorably bad; dreadful: Also strictly from hunger.

   The styles in coats this winter are from hunger.

hunger British  

/ ˈhʌŋɡə /

noun

1. a feeling of pain, emptiness, or weakness induced by lack of food

2. an appetite, desire, need, or craving

   hunger for a woman

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verb

1. to have or cause to have a need or craving for food

2. (intr; usually foll by for or after) to have a great appetite or desire (for)

Other Word Forms

• half-hungered adjective
• hungeringly adverb
• prehunger noun

Etymology

Origin of hunger

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English hungor; cognate with German Hunger

Example Sentences

Hundreds of Venezuelan workers and pensioners marched Monday for an increase in "hunger" wages as well as pensions frozen for four years and eroded by galloping inflation.

From Barron's • Mar. 23, 2026

At UCLA, professors in the Chicana/o and Central American Studies program — its founding dates to a 1993 hunger strike modeled after ones Chávez did — voted to remove his name from the department.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2026

My father spent the 1970s selling hunger to America: soda, waffles, chips, anything that promised satisfaction in 30 seconds flat.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 2026

The drought also affected a vast stretch of land across East Africa, leaving some 26 million people "facing extreme hunger" in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, according to humanitarian organisation Oxfam.

From BBC • Mar. 19, 2026

Clara had never known anything other than hunger in her first life, so she figured she could tolerate it perfectly well in this one.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

Related Words

• craving
• desire
• famine
• greed
• longing
• lust
• starvation
• yearning