want
Usage
What are other ways to say want?
The verb want, usually colloquial in use, suggests a feeling of lack or need that imperatively demands fulfillment: People all over the world want peace. Wish implies the feeling of an impulse toward attainment or possession of something; the strength of the feeling may be of greater or lesser intensity: I wish I could go home. Desire, a more formal verb, suggests a strong wish: They desire liberation.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Anthropic and OpenAI have spent years in a race for AI supremacy—trying to develop evermore advanced, premium models only to find now that companies want basic ones, too.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
It is a message to the local community that "we can do what we want because no-one's going to police it", Weston says.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
“What you want to do?” and “Now we finally got him.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
"That's obviously one where we had to put our heads together and be like, 'OK, we want to continue doing this. Let's just make an album and we'll figure it out'," says McPherson.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
They want to find ways to improve the conditions at Tala.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
She also wants to foster a passion for reading in her kids, and allows them to not finish books they don't enjoy so reading doesn't become a "punishment".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
He wants to explore the rest and sees two capabilities converging to allow us to do so.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
"Nobody wants to see local jobs lost," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Experts say that when a food-borne outbreak occurs, the public understandably wants to know which product is causing the illness, where it came from and how to protect themselves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
My head bobs up and down, and I watch him walk away wondering what a hot guy like him wants with a regular girl like me.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
We wanted to be mysterious and be closeted, and Katie was the one who encouraged us not to, and to just be ourselves.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
She changed course because she wanted a career based more on teamwork.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Even if a future leader wanted to reverse Trump's duties, revenue considerations will complicate the situation, Lipsky predicts.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
When Daija Holliday was headed to Marquette University in Milwaukee from her home in North Carolina, she wanted a safe, affordable place to live where she could build a community.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
He wanted to stay with the Duchess when his master went to fight, but Don Quixote said he must go or the spell wouldn't be broken.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
How else to explain those tech CEOs who usually can’t get enough change suddenly wanting it throttled?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to say for a long time,” she said.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
Emily Jeffcott and Rahul Ravipudi, told the BBC that the young plaintiff "came into this process wanting to hold social media companies accountable and push for changes to protect young people like himself".
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
“But they are probably only wanting to do it when stocks are going down,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Not wanting to answer a lot of questions from Mama and Daisy about my monkey-catching net, I hid it under the front porch before going in the house.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Vocabulary lists containing want
"A Modest Proposal," Vocabulary from the satire
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"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Selection Vocabulary 2, Unit 2
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