aching
Americanadjective
-
causing physical pain or distress.
treatment for an aching back.
-
full of or precipitating nostalgia, grief, loneliness, etc.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of aching
Middle English word dating back to 1200–1250; see origin at ache, -ing 2
Explanation
Anything that's aching is sore and painful. After a hike up the side of a steep mountain or a long day walking around a city, you'll want to rest your aching feet. To ache is to feel a dull, constant pain, and aching things ache. Both words stem from the Old English acan, "suffer pain," from a Proto-Indo-European root that might be imitative of a groaning sound, the kind of noise you may make when you have an aching head or an aching tooth. Things are sometimes described as aching in a figurative way, too, when they're full of sorrow, like an aching heart or an aching loneliness.
Vocabulary lists containing aching
"Brothers in Hope"
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Gordon Lightfoot (1938–2023) Tribute List
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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.
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
It seemed like the set was closing with “In the Dark,” an aching ballad from their Venturing side project, plainly declaring “I still dream of us” through a fog of effects.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
My feet were still aching when I boarded my flight home the next day.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
My knee was aching, likely a callback to surgery at 16 to repair torn ligaments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
“What would he want with the sea, and the cold, and the aching hard work?”
From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff
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.
