ache
Plural: aches
Noun
- a dull persistent (usually moderately intense) pain
- Continued dull pain, as distinguished from sudden twinges, or spasmodic pain.
- Parsley.
- Rare spelling of aitch.
Verb
Verb Forms: ached, aching, aches
- To suffer from a continuous, dull pain.
- feel physical pain
- have a desire for something or someone who is not present
- "She ached for a cigarette"
- be the source of pain
- To suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed.
- To cause someone or something to suffer pain.
Examples
- Every muscle in his body ached.
- My brain will ache if I try to find a bingo with these letters.
- My feet were aching for days after the marathon.
- The aches and pains died down after taking an analgesic.
- You may suffer a minor ache in your side.
Origin / Etymology
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), both from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eg- (“sin, crime”).
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.
Synonyms
aching, hurt, languish, pine, smart, suffer, yearn, yen, ache, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, anguish, dere, excruciate, irritate, misery, pain, pang, passion, rack, thole, throe, torment, torture, wark, wring
Scrabble Score: 9
ache: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordache: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
ache: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary