yearn
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To have a strong desire for something or to do something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
yurnIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈjɝn
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
intransitivealso figuratively
To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.
Have a desire for something or someone who is not present
intransitive
Of music, words, etc.: to express strong desire or longing.
Have affection for; feel tenderness for
specifically
To long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia.
To make (cheese) from curdled milk.
noun
A strong desire or longing; a yearning, a yen.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Have a desire for something or someone who is not present
Used this way, yearn 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
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.