aching

American  

[ey-king] / ˈeɪ kɪŋ /

adjective

1. causing physical pain or distress.

   treatment for an aching back.

2. full of or precipitating nostalgia, grief, loneliness, etc.

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Other Word Forms

• achingly adverb
• unaching adjective
• unachingly adverb

Etymology

Origin of aching

Middle English word dating back to 1200–1250; see origin at ache, -ing ²

Explanation

Anything that's aching is sore and painful. After a hike up the side of a steep mountain or a long day walking around a city, you'll want to rest your aching feet. To ache is to feel a dull, constant pain, and aching things ache. Both words stem from the Old English acan, "suffer pain," from a Proto-Indo-European root that might be imitative of a groaning sound, the kind of noise you may make when you have an aching head or an aching tooth. Things are sometimes described as aching in a figurative way, too, when they're full of sorrow, like an aching heart or an aching loneliness.

Example Sentences

But Pasbar has followed events in Iran closely, his heart aching as he watched the recent crackdown on protests until he couldn't bear it any longer.

From Barron's • Mar. 16, 2026

Fighting back tears, the NBC host said in an Instagram video that they are "aching" for Nancy Guthrie, who is suspected to have been abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona.

From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026

At 21, wanderlust — that aching desire to escape to somewhere else — took hold of Elizabeth Short.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 26, 2026

I kept thinking about the quiet, aching gap between who she might have been raised to be and what her life became.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

I stood and tried to stretch the kinks out of my aching back.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

Related Words

• hurting
• nagging
• sore
• throbbing