yarn

American  

[yahrn] / jɑrn /

noun

• yarns
  plural

1. thread made of natural or synthetic fibers and used for knitting and weaving.

2. a continuous strand or thread made from glass, metal, plastic, etc.

3. the thread, in the form of a loosely twisted aggregate of fibers, as of hemp, of which rope is made rope yarn.

4. a tale, especially a long story of adventure or incredible happenings.

   He spun a yarn that outdid any I had ever heard.

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verb (used without object)

• yarns,
  present (3rd person singular)
• yarned,
  past participle,  past
• yarning
  present participle

1. Informal. to spin a yarn; tell stories.

yarn British  

/ jɑːn /

noun

1. a continuous twisted strand of natural or synthetic fibres, used in weaving, knitting, etc

2. informal a long and often involved story or account, usually telling of incredible or fantastic events

3. informal

   1. to tell such a story

   2. to make up or relate a series of excuses

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verb

1. (intr) to tell such a story or stories

yarn Idioms  

1. see spin a yarn.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• yarns
  plural

Participles

• yarning
  present
• yarned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• yarn
  simple
• yarns
  simple
• have yarned
  perfect
• has yarned
  perfect
• am yarning
  progressive
• are yarning
  progressive
• is yarning
  progressive
• have been yarning
  perfect progressive
• has been yarning
  perfect progressive

Past

• yarned
  simple
• had yarned
  perfect
• was yarning
  progressive
• were yarning
  progressive
• had been yarning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will yarn
  simple
• will have yarned
  perfect
• will be yarning
  progressive
• will have been yarning
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of yarn

before 1000; Middle English; Old English gearn; cognate with German Garn; akin to Old Norse gǫrn gut, Greek chordḗ intestine, chord ¹, Lithuanian žarnà entrails, Latin hernia a rupture, Sanskrit hirā vein

Explanation

If you want to knit a hat, you're going to need yarn, the thick string made of twisted threads that's used to make sweaters, scarves, socks and other knitted things. Yarn is made from fibers, and it comes in many colors. When you knit, you weave yarn with needles and end up with a pot holder or a pair of mittens. Another kind of yarn is a long story that's told out loud. You might, in fact, tell your friend a yarn while you crochet an afghan with yarn. The Old English root word, gearn, means "spun fibers," but it comes from the Proto-Indo-European ghere, or "intestine."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yarn yarns yarned yarning

The hand-spun yarn dyed in natural colours is woven on handlooms, packing in between 300 and several thousand knots per square inch, depending on the intricacy of the design.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

The forced-labor tariff will push duties on the yarn to 37.5%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

Much of the stitched masterpiece, which is actually coloured yarn embroidered on linen rather than a woven tapestry, is currently covered up in giant polyester sheeting, to protect it from light damage.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

My reaction was this: “Not this same old yarn again.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026

In the middle of the night, I’d had a vision of the window framed in poster board stitched with super-bulky yarn like the edge of a quilting square.

From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry

"And that's not just writers who continually return to the Greeks and Romans -- the history, the myths, the characters, the events -- that's also readers. These are ripping good yarns."

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

Coppola’s use of archival footage brings Jacobs’ yarns to life.

From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2026

Works such as “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped,” still read today, exemplify the Scottish author’s gift for yarns.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 3, 2025

Knitters can opt for smaller patterns that require less yarn, or use up leftover yarn through designs that allow for different yarns to be cobbled together, such as striping.

From Slate ● Sep. 2, 2025

I think Mama had let him tell so many big yarns about his catching live game that he’d begun to believe them himself.

From "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson

As usually happens when I sit down with Marlow, we yarned.

From Time Magazine Archive

Returning to that indeterminate East of which he has often yarned before, Author Maugham spins a tale that in less sardonic hands would be a melodrama.

From Time Magazine Archive

He sang and he yarned time about—the songs for the children, the yarns for us.

From The Island of Gold A Sailor's Yarn by Gordon Stables

“Say, boy,” the old man went on, some minutes later, “guess you ain’t yarned a heap ’bout your shootin’ racket?”

From The Watchers of the Plains A Tale of the Western Prairies by Ridgwell Cullum

An awning was always kept spread over the fore part of the ship, and it was under this that the crew smoked and yarned in the evenings.

From The Island of Gold A Sailor's Yarn by Gordon Stables

It’s like a late-night D&M with a mate – only the mate is Nick Cave and we’re yarning with the lights up amid a cast of thousands.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 8, 2019

The present collection of rural yarning is a useful reminder that Caldwell, 57, is one of the best short-story tellers in the U.S.

From Time Magazine Archive

But throughout runs a vein of the old, Rocky Mountain, free-&-easy Fowler yarning.

From Time Magazine Archive

None surpasses the Sage of Burwash at yarning in dialects of all sorts.

From Time Magazine Archive

Potch saw Michael's eyes wander to where George was sitting yarning with his mates.

From The Black Opal by Katharine Susannah Prichard

Related Words

• fleece
• thread
• wool