What does homesick mean?
Homesick means experiencing a strong, often painful longing for one's home while being away from it. The feeling may be triggered by missing family, friends, familiar places, routines, food, language, or cultural surroundings. People can become homesick during long journeys, boarding-school terms, military service, hospital stays, or extended visits abroad. The adjective is commonly used with verbs such as “feel,” “become,” and “get”: “She felt homesick after only a week away.” The related noun, homesickness, names the condition itself. Homesick has a broad emotional range: it can express anything from gentle nostalgia to intense distress, while commonly carrying a sympathetic rather than negative connotation. The word is useful because it captures a universal experience of separation and belonging.
adjectiveFeeling or characterized by a painful or intense longing for one's home or familiar surroundings, especially when away from home.
- Feeling a strong longing to return to one's home or familiar surroundings
"After several months abroad, she became homesick and began to miss her family and old routines."
"The children became homesick while staying with their grandparents for the summer."
"Her homesick message made her friends arrange an earlier return home."
Homesick is the feeling that home is not just a place, but a source of identity, comfort, and belonging.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of homesick
The adjective homesick combines home with the suffix -sick, meaning affected by or suffering from. The word developed in the 18th century in English, when -sick was used to form adjectives such as seasick and lovesick. Its development follows a broader English pattern in which home derives from Old English hām, meaning home, dwelling, or household. Related words such as homeward, homestead, and homeowner continue to share the same English root.
Related word forms
How homesick is actually used
Commonly used in both formal and informal writing. It can describe a person who is homesick or a person's homesick feelings; the condition itself is usually called homesickness.
Easily confused with homesick
Homesick is an adjective describing a person or feeling; homesickness is the noun naming the condition of longing for home.