Make Your Editor Cry: Hunger Pains vs. Hunger Pangs
A pang is a brief piercing spasm of pain. Pain is a much more general word used to describe discomfort.
While hunger pains isn’t an entirely incorrect phrase to describe intense hunger that irritates one’s stomach, it is most likely an eggcorn. The phrase hunger pangs is the more commonly accepted version because it is more specific to the suddenness and sharpness of stomach discomfort due to hunger.
The correct expression is “hunger pangs.”
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.