yearning

[yur-ning]

noun

1. deep longing, especially when accompanied by tenderness or sadness.

   a widower's yearning for his wife.

2. an instance of such longing.

ˈyearning

/ ˈjɜːnɪŋ /

noun

1. an intense or overpowering longing, desire, or need; craving

Other Word Forms

• yearningly adverb
• unyearning adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of yearning¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English gierninge; equivalent to yearn + -ing ¹

Synonym Study

See desire.

Example Sentences

It did not sound yearning or hopeful, like previous versions I’d heard.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

But they are also plangently individual, yearning to harmonize their fates with their true selves.

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Time-travelling to Swift's high school days in Tennessee, it reminisces about a boy she confined to the friend zone while yearning for a single kiss.

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The movie star’s mask of artifice briefly vanishes, and all that’s left is a puppy dog look of yearning, a sad acceptance that it’s too late to change certain things.

Read more on Salon

Her latest single, a gorgeous, yearning ballad called I Just Don't Know You Yet, has been played four million times on Spotify.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• ambition 
• appetite 
• aspiration 
• craving 
• eagerness 
• fascination 
• hankering 
• hunger 
• longing 
• passion 
• thirst