Standard Lemma guide

fasting

noun · verb · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /ˈfæstɪŋ/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈfɑːstɪŋ/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -æstɪŋ
  • rhymes with -ɑːstɪŋ
  • CMU ARPABET: F AE1 S T IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Abstinence or mortification for religious reasons, especially abstinence from food.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Abstinence from food, limiting caloric intake, for medical or health reasons, dieting.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

present participle and gerund of fast

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: form-of, gerund, participle, present

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

abstaining from food

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fast

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: abstinence

Narrower terms: diet, dieting, hunger strike, Ramadan

History

Etymology

By surface analysis, fast + -ing.

Across languages

Translations

240 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Acehnese: puasa — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Albanian: agjërim — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Albanian: kreshmë — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Arabic: صَوْم (ṣawm) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Arabic: صِيَام (ṣiyām) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Aramaic: צומא — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Aramaic: ܨܰܘܡܳܐ — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Armenian: պաս (pas) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Armenian: ծոմ (com) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Armenian: պահք (pahkʻ) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Assamese: লঘোন (loghün) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Azerbaijani: oruc — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Basque: barau — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Belarusian: пост (post) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Belarusian: галада́нне (haladánnje) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Bengali: উপবাস (upobaś) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Bengali: উপোস (upōs) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Bengali: রোজাদারী (rōjadari) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Bengali: রোজা (rōja) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Bengali: সিয়াম (śiẏam) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Bhojpuri: उपास (upās) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Breton: yun — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Bulgarian: пост (post) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Catalan: dejuni — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Chinese Mandarin: 禁食 (jìnshí) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Chinese Mandarin: 齋戒 /斋戒 (zhāijiè) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Czech: půst — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Dalmatian: dezun — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Danish: faste — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Dutch: vasten — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Estonian: paast — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Faroese: føsta — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Finnish: paasto — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Finnish: paastoaminen — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • French: jeûne — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Friulian: dizun — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Friulian: diğun — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Galician: xaxún — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Galician: xexún — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Georgian: მარხვა (marxva) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • German: Fasten — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gothic: 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍃𐌵𐌹𐌸𐍂𐌴𐌹 (lausqiþrei) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Greek: νηστεία (nisteía) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Ancient Greek: νηστεία (nēsteía) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gujarati: ઉપવાસ (upavās) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gujarati: અપવાસ (apavās) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gujarati: અનશન (anaśan) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gujarati: લાંઘણ (lā̃ghaṇ) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gujarati: અનાહાર (anāhār) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gujarati: ફાકો (phāko) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gujarati: રોજો (rojo) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Hebrew: צוֹם (tsom) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Hebrew: תַּעֲנִית (ta'anít) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Hindi: उपवास (upvās) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Hindi: व्रत (vrat) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Hindi: रोज़ा (rozā) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Hungarian: böjtölés — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Icelandic: fasta — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Indonesian: puasa — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Interlingua: jejunation — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Irish: troscadh — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Italian: digiuno — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Japanese: 断食 (danjiki) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Japanese: 絶食 (zesshoku) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Kabuverdianu: djudjum — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Kalmyk: мацг (matsg) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Kashmiri: فاقہٕ (fāqụ) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Kashmiri: ورَٛتھ — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Kashmiri: روزٕ (rōzụ) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Kashmiri: وۄپَس (vọpas) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Kazakh: ораза (oraza) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Korean: 단식 (dansik) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Central Kurdish: ڕۆژوو (rojû) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Northern Kurdish: rojî — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Kyrgyz: орозо (orozo) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Latin: iēiūnium — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Latvian: gavēšana — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Latvian: gavēnis — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Lithuanian: pasninkas — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Macedonian: пост (post) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Malagasy: fifadin-kanina — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Malay: puasa — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Malayalam: നോമ്പ് (nōmpŭ) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Malayalam: ഉപവാസം (upavāsaṁ) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Māori: nohopuku — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Marathi: उपवास (upvās) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Mòcheno: vòst — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Norwegian: faste — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: astẽença — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: jajũu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Oromo: sooma — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Persian: روزه (ruze) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Polish: post — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Polish: poszczenie — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Portuguese: jejum — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Romanian: post — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Romanian: ajun — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Russian: пост (post) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Russian: голода́ние (golodánije) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sanskrit: उपवास (upavāsa) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: dejunu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: deunu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: deunzu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: diunzu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: diugnu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: geunu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: giaunu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: giunu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: zeunu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: giaugnu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sardinian: zaunzu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Scottish Gaelic: trasg — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Serbo-Croatian: пост — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Serbo-Croatian: post — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sicilian: dijunu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Sicilian: dajunu — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Slovak: pôst — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Slovene: post — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Somali: soon — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Spanish: ayuno — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Swahili: funga — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Swedish: fasta — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Tajik: рӯза (rüza) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Tamil: உண்ணாவிரதம் (uṇṇāviratam) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Tatar: ураза (uraza) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Telugu: ఉపవాసము (upavāsamu) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Telugu: పస్తు (pastu) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Thai: การอดอาหาร (gaan òt aahăan) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Turkish: oruç — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Turkish: perhiz — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Ottoman Turkish: اوروج (oruc) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Ottoman Turkish: پرهیز (perhiz) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Udi: цӏум (c̣um) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Ukrainian: піст (pist) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Ukrainian: голодува́ння (holoduvánnja) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Urdu: روزہ (roza) — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Uzbek: roʻza — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Venetan: zun — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Venetan: dizun — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Venetan: dezun — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Vietnamese: nhịn ăn — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Vietnamese: kiêng ăn — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Walloon: djune — act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food
  • Gheg Albanian: ninimi — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Gheg Albanian: njinimi — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Arabic: صَوْم (ṣawm) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Arabic: صِيَام (ṣiyām) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Aramaic: צומא — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Aramaic: ܨܰܘܡܳܐ — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Armenian: պաս (pas) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Armenian: ծոմ (com) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Armenian: պահք (pahkʻ) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Azerbaijani: oruc — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Basque: baraualdi — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Belarusian: пост (post) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Belarusian: галада́нне (haladánnje) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Bengali: উপবাস (upobaś) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Bengali: উপোস (upōs) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Bengali: রোজা (rōja) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Breton: yun — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Bulgarian: пост (post) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Catalan: dia dejunat — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Chinese Mandarin: 禁食 (jìnshí) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Chinese Mandarin: 齋戒 /斋戒 (zhāijiè) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Czech: půst — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Danish: faste — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Dutch: vasten — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Esperanto: fasto — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Estonian: paast — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Faroese: føsta — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Finnish: paasto — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • French: jeûne — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Galician: xaxún — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Georgian: მარხვა (marxva) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • German: Fastenzeit — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Greek: νηστεία (nisteía) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Ancient Greek: νηστεία (nēsteía) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Hebrew: צוֹם (tsom) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Hebrew: תַּעֲנִית (ta'anít) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Hindi: उपवास (upvās) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Hindi: व्रत (vrat) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Hindi: रोज़ा (rozā) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Hungarian: böjt — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Icelandic: fasta — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Indonesian: puasa — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Irish: troscadh — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Irish: céalacan — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Italian: digiuno — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Japanese: 断食 (danjiki) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Japanese: 絶食 (zesshoku) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Kabuverdianu: djudjum — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Kalmyk: мацг (matsg) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Kashmiri: فاقہٕ (fāqụ) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Kashmiri: ورَٛتھ — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Kashmiri: روزٕ (rōzụ) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Kashmiri: وۄپَس (vọpas) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Kazakh: ашығу (aşyğu) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Korean: 단식 (dansik) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Central Kurdish: ڕۆژوو (rojû) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Northern Kurdish: rojî — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Latin: iēiūnium — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Latvian: gavēnis — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Lithuanian: pasninkas — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Lithuanian: gavėnia — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Macedonian: пост (post) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Malagasy: fifadinkanina — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Malay: puasa — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Mòcheno: vòst — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Mongolian: харуу (xaruu) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Norwegian: faste — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Persian: روزه (ruze) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Polish: post — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Portuguese: jejum — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Romanian: post — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Russian: пост (post) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Russian: голода́ние (golodánije) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Scottish Gaelic: trasg — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Serbo-Croatian: пост — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Serbo-Croatian: post — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Slovak: pôst — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Slovene: post — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Spanish: ayuno — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Swahili: funga — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Swahili: saumu — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Swedish: fastetid — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Tagalog: ayuno — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Tajik: рӯза (rüza) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Thai: การอด (kaan òt) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Tibetan: ཟས་གཅོད (zas gcod) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Turkish: oruç — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Turkish: perhiz — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Ottoman Turkish: اوروج (oruç) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Udi: цӏум (c̣um) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Ukrainian: піст (pist) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Ukrainian: голодува́ння (holoduvánnja) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Vietnamese: nhịn ăn — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Vietnamese: kiêng ăn — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Walloon: djune — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Welsh: ympryd — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food
  • Yiddish: תּענית (tones) — period of time when one abstains from or eats very little food