lust after

verb

"lust-after" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“lust after” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To have strong sexual feelings or desires for someone with whom the individual is not in a relationship with.

Corpus desk

Index EN-lust-after · lust after · English

lust after · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "L" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for lust after
PropertyValue
Headwordlust after
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “lust after” in English

lust afterranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

lust after is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for lust after, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is lust after, spelled L-U-S-T- -A-F-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    To have strong sexual feelings or desires for someone with whom the individual is not in a relationship with.
  2. 2
    To have a strong desire for something.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how lust after appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He was lusting after the woman in the tight leather miniskirt.
  2. But I ſay vnto you / that whoſoever eyeth a wyfe / luſtynge affter her / hathe committed advoutrie with her alredy in his hert.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lust after"?
"lust after" is spelled L-U-S-T- -A-F-T-E-R.
What does "lust after" mean?
As a verb, "lust after" means: To have strong sexual feelings or desires for someone with whom the individual is not in a relationship with.
What language does "lust after" come from?
"lust after" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list