lust
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To look at or watch with a strong desire.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
luhstIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlʌst
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
intransitiveusually in the phrase lust after
To look at or watch with a strong desire, especially of a sexual nature.
noun
A feeling of strong desire, especially such a feeling driven by sexual arousal.
Self-indulgent sexual desire (personified as one of the deadly sins)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To look at or watch with a strong desire, especially of a sexual nature.
Used this way, lust is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A quality that outshines the usual.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Have a strong sexual desire for.
Curiosity that motivates investigation and study.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: feeling of strong desire
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.