hunger

1. 1.

   feel the need to eat

   Broaderache
2. 2.

   have a craving, appetite, or great desire for

   Synonymscravethirststarvelust

   Broaderdesire
3. 3.

   be hungry; go without food

   “Let's eat--I'm starving!”

   Synonymsstarvefamish

   Broadersuffer

1. 1.

   a physiological need for food; the consequence of food deprivation

   Synonymshungriness

   Broaderdrive

   Narrowerbulimiaemptinessedacitystarvationundernourishment
2. 2.

   strong desire for something (not food or drink)

   “a thirst for knowledge”

   “hunger for affection”

   Synonymshungrinessthirstthirstiness

   Broaderdesire

Other forms of hunger

plural

hungers·

past tense

hungerred·

present participle

hungerring·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about hunger

What does hunger mean?

hunger means "feel the need to eat". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in hunger?

hunger has 2 syllables: hun-ger. The stress falls on "hun". In IPA it is /ˈhʌŋɡɚ/.

What is another word for hunger?

Close synonyms include crave, thirst, starve, lust, starve. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is hunger a common word?

hunger is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.