ache
Americanverb (used without object)
-
aches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ached,
past participle, past
-
aching
present participle
-
to have or suffer a continuous, dull pain.
His whole body ached.
- Synonyms:
- hurt
-
to feel great sympathy, pity, or the like.
Her heart ached for the starving animals.
-
to feel eager; yearn; long.
She ached to be the champion. He's just aching to get even.
noun
-
aches
plural
verb
-
to feel, suffer, or be the source of a continuous dull pain
-
to suffer mental anguish
noun
Synonym Usage
See pain.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
achesimple
-
achessimple
-
have achedperfect
-
has achedperfect
-
am achingprogressive
-
are achingprogressive
-
is achingprogressive
-
have been achingperfect progressive
-
has been achingperfect progressive
Past
-
achedsimple
-
had achedperfect
-
was achingprogressive
-
were achingprogressive
-
had been achingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ache
before 900; (v.) Middle English aken, Old English acan; perhaps metaphoric use of earlier unattested sense “drive, impel” (compare Old Norse aka, cognate with Latin agere, Greek ágein ); (noun) derivative of the v.
Explanation
An ache is a dull, lingering pain. An ache in your calves after your morning jog might mean you didn't stretch enough before you started running. You might describe your discomfort as a head ache or a stomach ache — in either case, there's a throbbing or continuous pain. A non-physical hurt can also be called an ache, and you can use the word as a verb in either case: "It feels like my heart will ache forever, since my sweet cat died." The Old English root is acan, "to suffer pain," possibly from an imitative Proto-Indo-European word that sounds like a groan.
Vocabulary lists containing ache
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:
"It's tough work... the hardest part is carrying the seaweed back. It's very heavy and your shoulders ache afterwards."
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Though the ache of nostalgia reverberates throughout, the songs remain intensely present and vulnerable in their reckoning with it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Arnaldi described how he became ill on Thursday night, waking up with stomach ache at about 1am.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
Gnawing, almost unbearable heartbreak acts as the catalyst for a layered analysis of the ways humans — or, in the case of “The Sheep Detectives,” humans and their woolly friends — ache to forget.
From Salon ● May 25, 2026
Her head swam with fatigue; the sunlight glittering off the water made her eyes ache.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
She is in her late 70s and complains of nagging aches and pains, neuropathy, fatigue, anxiety, and occasional changes in her weight.
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026
These include repeatedly waking up throughout the night to relieve himself and "stomach aches real bad".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Less common symptoms are vomiting, body aches and low-grade fever.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Others will experience mild symptoms such as fever, body aches and nausea.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
He misses his family terribly, so terribly he aches.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Her mother ultimately relented and let her daughter attend art school, but Kusama ached to stretch beyond the country’s traditional Nihonga painting style.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Before Edward and Bella took over the world, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” viewers ached for David Boreanaz’s Angel and James Marsters’ Spike, centuries-old bros who fall for a very special high school blonde.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
"My heart ached, and I could only pray: 'God, please don't let that happen.'"
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2025
They think about the mixed martial arts workouts at a West Hollywood gym where they grappled, wrestled and tackled until their lungs burned and muscles ached.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2024
I blew up balloons until my cheeks ached and I was light-headed from oxygen deprivation.
From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen
“That innocuous little essay untangled some aching knot inside me,” she writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
As the Aedes aegypti mosquito expanded its range across more of the Americas, it brought with it the delirium, jaundice, and aching joints of yellow fever.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
The painkiller is usually prescribed for relatively minor conditions, such as aching joints or people recovering from surgery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
The morning after losing to Federer, an aching Willis limped to the shower at 4:30am to get ready for an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
Me, clasping tight, holding, feeling the rope burns, my aching arm.
From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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.
