Standard Lemma guide

hanker

verb · 2 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.

  • /ˈhæŋkə(ɹ)/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -æŋkə(ɹ)
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AE1 NG K ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To crave, want or desire.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • If you hanker for chocolate, you'll like this fudge recipe.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: covet

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

desire strongly or persistently

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: long, yearn

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: desire, want

Narrower terms: ache, yearn, yen, pine, languish

History

Etymology

With a secondary frequentative suffix -er, ultimately pointing to Proto-Germanic *hankōną, an iterative to *hanhaną (“to hang”). Related to Dutch hunkeren (“to crave”), which continues the zero-grade iterative.

Across languages

Translations

25 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: жадувам (žaduvam) — to want
  • Bulgarian: копнея (kopneja) — to want
  • Czech: toužit — to want
  • Czech: prahnout — to want
  • Czech: dychtit — to want
  • Dutch: hunkeren — to want
  • German: verlangen — to want
  • German: begehren — to want
  • Italian: volere — to want
  • Italian: desiderare — to want
  • Māori: ohia — to want
  • Māori: hōkaka — to want
  • Māori: koroingo — to want
  • Māori: tōmina — to want
  • Polish: wzdychać — to want
  • Polish: tęsknić — to want
  • Russian: хотеть (xotetʹ) — to want
  • Russian: жаждать (žaždatʹ) — to want
  • Sardinian: chègliere — to want
  • Sardinian: chèrfere — to want
  • Sardinian: chèrzere — to want
  • Spanish: querer — to want
  • Ukrainian: дуже хотіти (duže xotity) — to want
  • Ukrainian: палко бажати (palko bažaty) — to want
  • Ukrainian: жадати (žadaty) — to want