English - Alternative Forms

• waunt (obsolete)

English - Pronunciation

• (UK, New Zealand, Australia) enPR: wŏnt, IPA^(key): /wɒnt/
• Rhymes: -ɒnt
• (US) IPA^(key): /wɔnt/ also enPR: wŭnt, wänt, IPA^(key): /wʌnt/, /wɑnt/
• (New Zealand, non-standard) IPA^(key): /wʌnt/
• (some accents) enPR: wônt, IPA^(key): /wɔːnt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːnt

English - Etymology

From Middle English wanten (“to lack”), from Old Norse vanta (“to lack”), from Proto-Germanic *wanatōną (“to be wanting, lack”), from *wanô (“lack, deficiency”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty”). Cognate with Middle High German wan (“not full, empty”), Middle Dutch wan (“empty, poor”), Old English wana (“want, lack, absence, deficiency”), Latin vanus (“empty”). See wan.

English - Verb

want (third-person singular simple present wants, present participle wanting, simple past and past participle wanted)

1. (transitive) To wish for or to desire (something). [from 18th c.]

   What do you want to eat?  I want you to leave.  I never wanted to go back to live with my mother.  I want to be an astronaut when I'm older.  I don't want him to marry Gloria, I want him to marry me!  What do you want from me?  Do you want anything from the shops?

2. (intransitive, now dated) To be lacking, not to exist. [from 13th c.]

   There was something wanting in the play.

   • Dryden

     The disposition, the manners, and the thoughts are all before it; where any of those are wanting or imperfect, so much wants or is imperfect in the imitation of human life.

3. (transitive) To lack, not to have (something). [from 13th c.]
   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.7:

     he that hath skill to be a pilot wants a ship; and he that could govern a commonwealth […] wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage.

   • James Merrick

     Not what we wish, but what we want, / Oh, let thy grace supply!

   • Addison

     I observed that your whip wanted a lash to it.

4. (transitive, colloquially with verbal noun as object) To be in need of; to require (something). [from 15th c.]
   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 2

     The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.

   That chair wants fixing.

5. (intransitive, dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.
   • Ben Jonson

     You have a gift, sir (thank your education), / Will never let you want.

   • Alexander Pope

     For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find / What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Synonyms

• (desire): set one's heart on, wish for, would like
• (lack): be without
• (require): need, be in need of

Derived terms

Translations

English - Noun

Wikipedia

want (countable and uncountable, plural wants)

1. (countable) A desire, wish, longing.
2. (countable, often followed by of) Lack, absence.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI Part 2, act 4, sc. 8:

     [H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.

   • For Want of a Nail:

     For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

     For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

     For want of a horse the rider was lost.

     For want of a rider the battle was lost.

     For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

     And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

3. (uncountable) Poverty.
   • Jonathan Swift

     Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.

4. Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
   • Paley

     Habitual superfluities become actual wants.

5. (UK, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.

Derived terms

• want ad

Translations

English - References

1. ^ Dictionary.com

English - Anagrams

• tawn

Afrikaans - Etymology

From Dutch want.

Conjunction

want

1. for, because

Dutch - Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋɑnt/
• Homophone: wand

Dutch - Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch wanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwandē.

Conjunction

want

1. for, because

   Hij komt niet, want hij is ziek. — He is not coming, because he is sick. (Note: The order is SVO after want.)

Synonyms

• omdat

See also

• aangezien
• omdat

Dutch - Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch *want, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz.

Noun

want f (plural wanten, diminutive wantje n)

1. mitten

Dutch - Etymology 3

From Middle Dutch want, gewant, from Old Dutch *giwant, from Proto-Germanic *gawandą, from the root of winden.

Noun

want n (plural wanten, diminutive wantje n)

1. shroud, sideways support for a mast.

Dutch - Etymology 4

Verb

want

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of wannen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of wannen

Old High German - Noun

want f

1. wall

Tocharian A - Etymology

From Proto-Tocharian *w'entë, from Post-PIE *h₂weh₁ntos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁nts, from *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”) (compare English wind, Latin ventus). Compare Tocharian B yente.

Tocharian A - Noun

want

1. wind

قافية