Synonyms for want
- verb
- noun
Synonyms by meaning
Verb
1. Need — to wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave, hanker, or demand
need, wish, require, crave, will, ask, expect, call for, demand, mind
2. Would like
would like, should, like, ought formal, fancy
Other
desire, come short, lack, hope, covet, fall short, hunger, desiderate rare
Noun
1. Poverty
poverty, privation, necessity, dearth, deprivation, scarcity, neediness, penury, pauperism, absence, indigence, destitution, beggary, inadequacy, insufficiency, scantiness rare, wantfulness rare
Other
must, deficiency, requirement, default, deficit, defect, exigency, omission, desideratum, dejection, defectiveness rare
Definitions
- v. 1
To wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave, hanker, or demand.
I want you as a friend, not a foe.
- v. 2
To wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave, hanker, or demand. To make it easy or tempting to do something undesirable, or to make it hard or challenging to refrain from doing it.
The game developers of Candy Crush want you to waste large, copious amounts of your money on in-game purchases to buy boosters and lives.
- n. 1
A desire, wish, longing.
Choose the right word
Need suggests the possibility of supplying the deficiency which want expresses; to speak of a person's want of decision merely points out a weakness in his character; to say that he has need of decision implies that he can exercise or attain it.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- need There is need for improvement in your handwriting.
- wish I wish I could go with you, but as it is, I can't.
- require I require absolute loyalty from all my employees.
- crave I crave change but lack the energy to pursue it.
- should You should know better than to ask a lady her age.
By length
- 3 letters
- ask1
- 4 letters
- will1, like1, need1, must1, mind1, hope1, wish1, lack1
- 5 letters
- ought1, fancy2, crave1, covet2
- 6 letters
- should1, expect2, demand2, desire3, hunger2, defect2, dearth1, penury3
- 7 letters
- require3, poverty3, absence2, default2, deficit3, beggary
- 8 letters
- scarcity3, omission3, exigency4
- 9 letters
- necessity4, privation3, neediness, dejection, indigence, pauperism
- 10 letters
- deficiency4, inadequacy5, scantiness3, desiderate
- 11 letters
- requirement3, deprivation4, destitution4, desideratum, wantfulness
- 13 letters
- insufficiency5, defectiveness
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (fancy2 = 2 syllables).