Wanting

//ˈwɑntɪŋ// adj, noun, prep, verb

adj, noun, prep, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of wanting something; desire. countable, uncountable

    "Choice occurs only when we experience a conflict of wantings."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of want form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    That wants or desires.
  2. 2
    Absent or lacking.

    "Already Cæſar Has ravaged more than half the Globe, and ſees Mankind grown thin by his deſtructive Sword: Should he go further, Numbers would be wanting To form new Battels, and ſupport his Crimes."

  3. 3
    Deficient.

    "Kate felt privileged to have been permitted to speak through it and she was glad that, as before, she had been judged and not found wanting"

Adjective
  1. 1
    inadequate in amount or degree wordnet
  2. 2
    nonexistent wordnet
Preposition
  1. 1
    Without, except, but.
  2. 2
    Less, short of, minus.

Synonyms

All synonyms
deficientlackingthreadbareabscondedabsentabsent

Example

More examples

"Not wanting is the same as having."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English wantyng, wantynge, wantand, equivalent to want + -ing.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wantyng, wantynge, equivalent to want + -ing.

Related phrases

find wanting

More for "wanting"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.