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Synonyms

ache

American  
[eyk] / eɪk /

verb (used without object)

ached, aching

  1. to have or suffer a continuous, dull pain.

    His whole body ached.
    Synonyms:
    hurt

  2. to feel great sympathy, pity, or the like.

    Her heart ached for the starving animals.

  3. to feel eager; yearn; long.

    She ached to be the champion. He's just aching to get even.

noun

  1. a continuous, dull pain (in contrast to a sharp, sudden, or sporadic pain).

ache British  
/ eɪk /

verb

  1. to feel, suffer, or be the source of a continuous dull pain

  2. to suffer mental anguish

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a continuous dull pain

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

See pain.

Other Word Forms

  • aching adjective
  • achingly adverb

Etymology

Origin of ache

before 900; (v.) Middle English aken, Old English acan; perhaps metaphoric use of earlier unattested sense “drive, impel” (compare Old Norse aka, cognate with Latin agere, Greek ágein ); (noun) derivative of the v.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.