hunger
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
-
hungers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hungered,
past participle, past
-
hungering
present participle
-
to feel hunger; be hungry.
-
to have a strong desire.
verb (used with object)
-
hungers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hungered,
past participle, past
-
hungering
present participle
idioms
noun
-
a feeling of pain, emptiness, or weakness induced by lack of food
-
an appetite, desire, need, or craving
hunger for a woman
verb
-
to have or cause to have a need or craving for food
-
(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
-
hungersimple
-
hungerssimple
-
have hungeredperfect
-
has hungeredperfect
-
am hungeringprogressive
-
are hungeringprogressive
-
is hungeringprogressive
-
have been hungeringperfect progressive
-
has been hungeringperfect progressive
Past
-
hungeredsimple
-
had hungeredperfect
-
was hungeringprogressive
-
were hungeringprogressive
-
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:
Located deep within the brain, this small but essential control center helps regulate hunger, body temperature, hormone production, and the daily cycle of sleeping and waking.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
The benefits and risk cloak more central driving factors among AI titans: the will to power, the desire for wealth, the hunger to be in charge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
That changed after 28 June, when educationist and scientist Sonam Wangchuk began a hunger strike in CJP's support and Neha and a few others from Aisa also joined him.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
Detainees and immigrant rights groups have increasingly challenged conditions at Adelanto in court and through protests such as hunger strikes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
‘Soon they drifted into evil, warped by their hunger for power.’
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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
No one hungers for the bad old days—the infamous “Ford to City: Drop Dead” headline ran just months before PS1 opened—but it’s hard not to be nostalgic for the art world of the past.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
The authors have also known hungers of many kinds, inheriting their ancestors’ “insatiable” appetites — for food and water, but also for connection.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2023
Yet, our nation hungers for their radical song.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2023
Some hungers were delusional, but that didn’t make them any less real.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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
Election administrators in many states have long hungered for better access to federal information on citizenship status.
From Salon ● Feb. 27, 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 while she hungered for education, academic strictures rarely suited her, and her methods, ahead of their time, struck many university gatekeepers as too unorthodox.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2023
He slept not, for there was no sleep; he hungered not, for as yet there was no hunger.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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
Cheered on by a studio audience hungering for fireworks and fisticuffs — “Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2023
“Our audiences are hungering for an authentic experience, the work of art placed in front of them,” Mr. Steward said.
From New York Times ● Oct. 20, 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
But, of course, it was my body, hungering, biding its time against the tyranny of my spirit.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
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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.
