- present participle of yearn.
yearning
Americannoun
-
yearnings
plural
-
deep longing, especially when accompanied by tenderness or sadness.
a widower's yearning for his wife.
-
an instance of such longing.
noun
Synonym Usage
See desire.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of yearning
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English gierninge; equivalent to yearn + -ing 1
Explanation
A yearning is a strong desire. If you have a yearning to travel in Africa, it means that you dream about it and intensely hope that one day you'll end up there. A strong longing for something is a yearning for it. If you have a yearning for ice cream, it probably means that you've gone a long time without any and are almost desperate to taste some. The Old English root of the words yearn and yearning is georn, which means "eager or desirous."
Vocabulary lists containing yearning
100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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"Joyas Voladoras" by Brian Doyle
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Achievement First 7th Grade IA 1 Words
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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:
The former song is a prog-rock instrumental, while the latter is a yearning piece about striving for success: “I’ve got to keep on chasin’ a dream / I’ve gotta be on my way.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Instead, Ted’s emphasis on personal growth and camaraderie rebuilds the Greyhounds from their league’s demoralized joke into its comeback kings, powered by their yearning to Believe.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026
The hazy love melody “Tremenda,” for example, underscores an intense yearning for connection.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
He is speaking to us trackside at Crystal Palace, its grandstands and shuttered scoreboard almost silenced and yearning to return to their former glory.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Embittered by failure, yearning for a safe place where he could await old age, the false homeopath took refuge in Macondo.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The photo remains a bellwether even today, revealing more about the yearnings and prejudices of its viewers than about the subject herself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
While the fan-theorised second finale has not materialised, a behind-the-scenes documentary showing how season five of the hit TV series came to life hopes to satisfy some of those yearnings and burning questions.
From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2026
Despite the yearnings and longings that contribute to Lord Huron’s haunted Americana sound, Schneider is glad to live in this moment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2025
For Erice, a master, cinema works as a revelatory force that can illuminate our truest feelings and yearnings, despite the efforts of some of his characters to escape their torturous pasts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2024
Sitting in the crotch of his favorite branch on the birch, he would project his thoughts, feelings, questions, yearnings, in what he considered the direction of his home.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
