hunger

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhʌŋɡə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhʌŋɡɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋɡə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: hun‧ger

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”), Swedish hunger (“hunger”), Icelandic hungur (“hunger”).

hunger (countable and uncountable, plural hungers)

1. A need or compelling desire for food.
2. (by extension) Any strong desire or need.

   I have a hunger to win.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: ">…] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 1:

     O sacred hunger of ambitious minds!

   • 2003, “What Up Gangsta”, in Curtis Jackson, Rob Tewlow (lyrics), Reef Tewlow (music), Get Rich or Die Tryin', performed by 50 Cent, New York City: Shady Records:

     When gangsters bump my shit, can they feel my hunger?

   • 2025 February 6, Angelica Evans, “Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion: Six Month Assessment”, in Ukraine Project, Institute for the Study of War:

     Putin's unwillingness to declare another partial reserve call up has created a wider manpower hunger in the Russian military and border service, and Putin alone maintains the ability to remedy this issue.

The phrase be hungry is more common than have hunger to express a need for food.

• satiety
• satiation

• thirst

From Middle English hungren, from Old English hyngran, hyngrian, ġehyngrian (“to be hungry”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungrijan, from Proto-Germanic *hungrijaną.

hunger (third-person singular simple present hungers, present participle hungering, simple past and past participle hungered)

1. (intransitive) To be in need of food.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Romans 12:20:

     Therefore if thine enemie hunger, feed him: if he thirst, giue him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heape coales of fire on his head.

2. (figuratively, intransitive, usually with 'for' or 'after') To have a desire (for); to long; to yearn.

   I hungered for your love.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Matthew 5:6:

     Blessed are they which doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse: for they shall be filled.

   • 1993, The The, Love Is Stronger Than Death:

     In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch.

3. (archaic, transitive) To make hungry; to famish.

• ahungered/anhungered
• forhungered

• “hunger”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• rehung

From Old Norse hungr.

hunger c (singular definite hungeren, not used in plural form)

1. (dated, occasionally humorous) hunger

   Synonym: sult

   1. (figurative) a strong urge; a longing (for something)

• hungre
• hungrig

• “hunger” in Den Danske Ordbog

hunger

1. inflection of hungern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative

• hunguer, honguer, honger, hungre, hongre, hungere, hongur, hounger, hounguer, hungir, hungyr, hungur
• hungær, hungor, hunnꟑerr (Early Middle English)

From Old English hungor, from Proto-West Germanic *hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hungruz.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhunɡər/,

hunger (uncountable)

1. Hungriness; the feeling of being hungry or requiring satiation.
2. Hunger; a great lack or death of food or nutrition.
   • p. 1154, “AD 1137”, in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS. Laud Misc. 636, continuation), Peterborough, folio 89, verso; republished at Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 2018 February 8:

     Mani þusen hi drapen mid hungær.

     Many thousands they overcame with hunger.

3. A shortage of food in a region or country; widespread hunger.
   • a. 1382, John Wycliffe, “2 Paralipomenon 6:28”, in Wycliffe's Bible:

     If hungur riſiþ in þe lond and peſtilence and ruſt and wynd diſtriynge cornes and a locuste and bꝛuke comeþ and if enemyes biſegen þe ȝatis of þe citee aftir þat þe cuntreis ben diſtried and al veniaunce and ſikenesse oppꝛeſſiþ

     If hunger rises in the land, and pestilence, rust, wind, destroying grain, and locusts and their young come, and if enemies besiege a city's gates after the city's surrounds are ruined, and when any destruction and disease oppresses (people)

4. Hunger as a metaphorical individual; the force of hunger.
5. (rare) Any strong drive or compulsion.

• hungren
• hungry
• hungrylych

• English: hunger
• Scots: hounger, hunger

• “hunger, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 19 September 2018.

From Old High German hungar, from Proto-West Germanic *hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hungruz, from Proto-Indo-European *kenk-.

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈhʊŋɡər/

hunger m

1. famine
2. hunger (need for food)
3. (figurative) hunger (strong desire)

• Central Franconian:
  • Hunsrik: Hunger
  • Luxembourgish: Honger
• Cimbrian: hungar, hummar (Luserna)
• German: Hunger
• Yiddish: הונגער (hunger)

• Benecke, Georg Friedrich, Müller, Wilhelm, Zarncke, Friedrich (1863) “hunger”, in Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch: mit Benutzung des Nachlasses von Benecke, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel
• "hunger" in Köbler, Gerhard, Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (3rd edition 2014)

• honger (Föhr-Amrum)
• Hunger (Sylt)

from Old Frisian hunger, from Proto-West Germanic *hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hungruz.

hunger m

1. (Mooring) hunger

From Old Norse hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hunhruz.

hunger m (definite singular hungeren, uncountable)

1. hunger

• sult

• hungersnød (“famine”)

• hungrig

• “hunger” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse hungr.

hunger m (definite singular hungeren) (uncountable)

1. hunger

• svolt

• hungersnaud, hungersnød

• hungrig

• “hunger” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

hunger

Wikipedia ^sv

From Old Norse hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hunhruz.

• Audio:

  (file)

hunger c (uncountable)

1. hunger

   att känna hunger

   to feel hunger

• lufthunger

• hungrig (“hungry”)
• hungra (“to hunger”)

• törst (“thirst”)

• hunger in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• hunger in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• hunger in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)