The municipality lies on a ridge in the eastern Hunsrück between the Middle Rhine and the Autobahn A 61.

Hungenroth belonged until the latter half of the 15th century to the Lordship of Schöneck and thereafter, as an unredeemed pledge to the Vogtei of Pfalzfeld in the Lower County of Katzenelnbogen or their rightful successors, the Landgraves of Hesse and the Lords of Hesse-Rheinfels.

The field tinctures gules and Or (red and gold) refer to the village's former landholders.

Until the latter half of the 15th century, Hungenroth belonged to the Lordship of Schöneck, passing next as an unredeemed pledge to the Counts of Katzenelnbogen.

The silver plough symbolizes the woodland clearing, which surely took place under the Schönecks, and which is mentioned in the last syllable of the municipality's name (the —roth ending stems from the same root as the German verb roden, meaning “clear”, with reference to woods).