itch

1. 1.

   a contagious skin infection caused by the itch mite; characterized by persistent itching and skin irritation

   “he has a bad case of the itch”

   Synonymsscabies

   Broaderinfection
2. 2.

   a strong restless desire

   “why this urge to travel?”

   Synonymsurge

   Broaderdesire
3. 3.

   an irritating cutaneous sensation that produces a desire to scratch

   Synonymsitchinessitching

   Broadercutaneous sensation

   Narrowerpruritus

Other forms of itch

plural

itches·

past tense

itched·

present participle

itching·

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 itch

What does itch mean?

itch means "scrape or rub as if to relieve itching". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in itch?

itch has 1 syllable: itch. In IPA it is /ˈɪtʃ/.

What is another word for itch?

Close synonyms include rub, scratch, spoil, scabies, urge. 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 itch a common word?

itch is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.