hunger

CEFRB1

/ˈhʌŋɡə/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The feeling of needing or wanting food.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Any strong desire or need.

Examples

  • Around fifty people die of hunger every day in the camp.

  • To him, hunger was an abstract concept; he always had enough to eat.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈhʌŋɡɚ] ~ [ˈhʌŋɡɹ̩]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To be in need of food.

  2. A need or compelling desire for food.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To have a desire (for); to long; to yearn.

More examples

In context

  • With hunger and fatigue, the dog died at last.

  • I have a hunger to win.

  • I hungered for your love.

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The explorer felt a sharp blank in his stomach after not eating for two days.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English hunger, from Old English hungor (“hunger, desire; famine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hungruz, *hunhruz (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *kenk- (“to burn, smart, desire, hunger, thirst”). Cognate with West Frisian honger, hûnger (“hunger”), Dutch honger (“hunger”), German Low German Hunger (“hunger”), German Hunger (“hunger”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hunger (“hunger”), Faroese and Icelandic hungur (“hunger”).