How do you use the word "ache" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "ache": My joints ache when it gets cold. I ache for a sight of the sea.

Ache Meaning

/ˈeɪk/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

verbTo suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed.

verbTo cause someone or something to suffer pain.

Sentence Examples

My joints ache when it gets cold.

I ache for a sight of the sea.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

hurt smart pine

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

After running the marathon, my legs began to ____ terribly from the exertion.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

I have a dull ____ in my back after sitting for so long.

Word Origin & History

From Middle English aken (verb), and ache (noun), from Old English acan (verb) (from Proto-West Germanic *akan, from Proto-Germanic *akaną (“to ache”)) and æċe (noun) (from Proto-West Germanic *aki, from Proto-Germanic *akiz). Cognate with Saterland Frisian eeke, ääke (“to ache, fester”), Low German aken, achen, äken (“to hurt, ache”), German Low German Eek (“inflammation”), North Frisian akelig, æklig (“terrible, miserable, sharp, intense”), West Frisian aaklik (“nasty, horrible, dismal, dreary”), Dutch akelig (“nasty, horrible”). The verb was originally strong, conjugating for tense like take (e.g. I ake, I oke, I have aken), but gradually became weak during Middle English; the noun was originally pronounced as /eɪt͡ʃ/ as spelled (compare breach, from break). Historically the verb was spelled ake, and the noun ache (even after the form /eɪk/ started to become common for the noun; compare again break which is now also a noun). The verb came to be spelled like the noun when lexicographer Samuel Johnson mistakenly assumed that it derived from Ancient Greek ἄχος (ákhos, “pain”) due to the similarity in form and meaning of the two words.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"By'r lakin, I can goe no further, Sir, / My old bones akes:^([sic]) here's a maze trod indeede / Through fourth rights, & Meanders: / by your patience, I needes muſt reſt me." — 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 13:

"And that thing made of ſound and ſhovv / VVhich mortals have miſnamed A Beau, / (But in the language of the ſky / Is call'd a tvvolegg'd butterfly) / VVill make your very heartſtrings ake / VVith loud and everlaſting clack, […]" — 1766, James Beattie, “[Miscellany Poems.] The Wolf and Shepherds, a Fable.”, in Poems on Several Subjects. […], new edition, London: […] W. Johnston, […], →OCLC, stanza 3, pages 113–114:

"The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one." — 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

"Fill all thy bones with aches." — c. 1610, Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I, Scene II:

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