longing
Americannoun
-
strong, persistent desire or craving, especially for something unattainable or distant.
filled with longing for home.
- Synonyms:
- aspiration
- Antonyms:
- apathy
-
an instance of this.
a sudden longing to see old friends.
adjective
noun
adjective
Related Words
See desire.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of longing
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English langung; equivalent to long 2 + -ing 1
Explanation
A longing is a strong feeling of need or desire for someone or something. If you're stuck in detention and all of your friends are outside enjoying a sunny day, you might be looking out the window with longing. A longing describes an unfulfilled desire. The days might feel long as long as you are longing to see someone you love, if that person is far away. You might be longing for your mother's home-made chicken soup, if you are sick and far from home. Or perhaps you are a pregnant woman, wide awake and longing for pickles and ice-cream at four in the morning. Let's hope there's a twenty-four hour deli open somewhere to help satisfy your longing.
Vocabulary lists containing longing
Beowulf vocabulary
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Copper Sun
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Out of the Dust
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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.
What they did share was a brutal colonial past, and a longing to achieve economic self-determination.
From Barron's • May 7, 2026
“There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill,” wrote Golding, “and there was the world of longing and baffled common sense.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 4, 2026
Harold Bloom taught us that “a longing for sustained vision may be the authentic mark of achieved epic.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
In my time in Florida, I’d found a more complicated story, but down here, everyone had their theories, their longing for citrus nirvana, and their anger at the loss.
From Slate • Apr. 20, 2026
How to explain to these two children the longing in my heart for what they had?
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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.
