hungry

The word “hungry” means feeling the need or desire to eat. In plain terms, wanting food, or more broadly, eager and driven to achieve something.

“Hungry” is pronounced HUHNG-gree (/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/ in IPA).

Here is “hungry” used in a sentence: “By lunchtime, the kids were starving hungry.”

Words with a similar meaning to “hungry” include anhungry, ahungry, gaunted, hungerful and hungree.

The opposite of “hungry” — its antonyms — are full, gorged, nonhungry, unhungry and sated.

“Hungry” is an adjective.

The word “hungry” comes from Old English. From Old English hungrig, built from hunger + the adjective suffix -y.

“Hungry” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.

They sound similar but are completely different. 'Hungry' is an adjective describing the need or desire to eat. 'Hungary' is a country in Central Europe with its capital at Budapest. One describes an empty stomach; the other is a place on a map. Only the spelling and context tell them apart.

Hungry describes a general need or wish to eat. Starving literally means suffering serious harm from lack of food, though in everyday speech people use it as an exaggeration for being very hungry. So 'I'm starving' usually just means extremely hungry, not that someone is truly without food.

Yes. Beyond food, hungry describes a strong craving or ambition, as in 'hungry for success' or 'a hungry young team.' Used this way it suggests eager, driven, determined energy. The image of physical hunger becomes a way to picture intense desire for something other than food.

The opposite is full, or being satisfied after eating, sometimes described as satiated. Words like stuffed convey the same idea in casual speech. Where hungry signals a need to eat, these words mean that need has been met and the desire for food is gone.