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PlainSpell

thirst

/θɝst/noun, verb

thirst is a noun meaning “A sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (such as fear…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-H-I-R-S-T and has one syllable, and it appears 4.4 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of thirst is thirsts.

What does thirst mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (such as fear, excitement, etc.) which stops the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane.

    We developed a great thirst during our hike.

  2. 2

    The condition producing the sensation of thirst.

    If you go out in the desert for long without water, the thirst can drive you mad.

  3. 3

    A want and eager desire (for something); a craving or longing.

    She had a real thirst for news and that greatly helped her career.

  4. 4

    Sexual lust.

    He had a thirst for her and she had the same for him.

verb

  1. 1

    To be thirsty.

  2. 2

    To desire vehemently.

    I thirst for knowledge and education will sate me.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce thirst?

  • UK /θɜːst/
  • US /θɝst/
  • /θɪɹst/

Thirst has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-thirst.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of thirst

  • thirsts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • thirsting participle, present
  • thirsted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is thirst?

Thirst appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Thirst in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsoif (dryness), avoir soif (to be thirsty), désirer (to desire)
GermanDurst (dryness), dürsten, dursten, Durst haben (to be thirsty), lechzen (to desire)
Portuguesesede (dryness), ter sede, estar com sede (to be thirsty)
Spanishsed (dryness), tener sed (to be thirsty), desear (to desire), hambre, ambición, ansias (figuratively)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does thirst come from?

From Middle English thirst, thurst, from Old English þurst, from Proto-West Germanic *þurstu, from Proto-Germanic *þurstuz, from Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“dry”). Germanic cognates include Old High German thurst, Middle High German durst, German Durst, Old Saxon thurst, Old Dutch thursti, Middle Dutch dorst, dorste, Dutch dorst, Old Norse þorsti (Swedish törst, Icelandic þorsti, Faroese tosti, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål tørst, Norwegian Nynorsk tørste).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).