urge
verb · noun
Simple meaning
A strong desire.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
urjIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɝdʒ
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
transitive
To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to force onward.
transitive
To press hard upon; to follow closely.
transitive
To press onward or forward.
transitive
To present in an urgent manner; to insist upon.
transitive
To put mental pressure on; to ply with motives, arguments, persuasion, or importunity.
transitive
To be pressing in argument; to insist; to persist.
noun
A strong restless desire
A strong desire; an itch to do something.
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: A strong desire; an itch to do something.
Used this way, urge is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use urge
- “I urged him to finish his studies.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Urinary incontinence that is generally attributable to involuntary contracts of the bladder muscle resulting in an urgent need to urinate accompanied by a sudden loss of urine.
Spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts.
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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.