Want

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /wɒnt/

Definitions

1. to have a desire or wish for something, or to feel that something is needed or necessary
2. to experience a wish or longing for an object or outcome, or to identify a lack or deficiency in a situation or condition
3. to express a need or aspiration for something desired, or to recognize an absence or requirement for something essential

Etymology: The verb "want" began as a word for emptiness. Its earliest sense in English was "to lack" or "to be missing," and it came into Middle English from Old Norse "vanta," meaning "to lack." Both trace back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "lack" or "deficiency," which is related to Old English "wana" and to Latin "vanus," "empty," the source of English "vain." So the modern sense of wanting something as a desire grew out of the older idea of being without it. The noun has a separate and much stranger history. It is not connected to the verb at all. It descends from Old English "wand" or "wond," meaning "mole," the small burrowing animal, which came from a Proto-Germanic word. Middle English "wont" carried that meaning, and the modern spelling "want" for the noun was reached by a later change in form, not by any link to the verb's sense of lacking.

Synonyms: desire, wish, crave, yearn

Antonyms: have, possess