yearn
Americanverb (used without object)
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yearns,
present (3rd person singular)
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yearned,
past participle, past
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yearning
present participle
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to have an earnest or strong desire; long.
to yearn for a quiet vacation.
-
to feel tenderness; be moved or attracted.
They yearned over their delicate child.
verb
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to have an intense desire or longing (for); pine (for)
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to feel tenderness or affection
Synonym Usage
Yearn, long, hanker, pine all mean to feel a powerful desire for something. Yearn stresses the depth and passionateness of a desire: to yearn to get away and begin a new life; to yearn desperately for recognition. Long implies a wholehearted desire for something that is or seems unattainable: to long to relive one's childhood; to long for the warmth of summer. Hanker suggests a restless or incessant craving to fulfill some urge or desire: to hanker for a promotion; to hanker after fame and fortune. Pine adds the notion of physical or emotional suffering as a result of the real or apparent hopelessness of one's desire: to pine for one's native land; to pine for a lost love.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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yearnsimple
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yearnssimple
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have yearnedperfect
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has yearnedperfect
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am yearningprogressive
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are yearningprogressive
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is yearningprogressive
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have been yearningperfect progressive
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has been yearningperfect progressive
Past
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yearnedsimple
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had yearnedperfect
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was yearningprogressive
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were yearningprogressive
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had been yearningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of yearn
First recorded before 900; Middle English yernen, Old English giernan derivative of georn “eager”; akin to Old Norse girna “to desire,” Greek chaírein “to rejoice,” Sanskrit háryati “(he) desires”
Explanation
To yearn for something is to really, really want it. You might yearn for freedom or you might yearn for a perfect tamale. Usually you yearn for something or someone you can't easily get. If you have a hankering for pie, you could also say that you yearn for it. Yearn also means "to feel sweet on someone" or "to have affection for something." If your girlfriend moves to Alaska and you’re stuck in Texas, you’d probably yearn for her. And when she comes back to visit, you would still yearn — meaning you’d still feel affection for her.
Vocabulary lists containing yearn
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
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List 12
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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:
And yet, children often yearn to hear about their parents’ past, including memories of trauma, particularly as they become adults.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
They look at gaping inequalities in society and yearn for change.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Understandably, you yearn for those familiar sights and faces, and the comfort of your former home.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
The meaning I glean from your words is this: It’s not so much that you yearn for him romantically and fear you made a mistake simply because your life is empty without him.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
Imagine how he might yearn for one whom he might use as a grandchild.”
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Behind her trad-wife trappings, Barbara yearns to breathe free; Ibby, a blond beauty born to be disappointed, needs a friend and Barbara is it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
A version of what the Moneyist reader yearns for actually already exists.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
It’s clear Aaron Donald yearns to be back on an NFL field.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The show ended with Dance With Me, a ballad in which Mars yearns for one last slow dance to save a struggling relationship.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
"The cold winds have worn her away, I hear. Will you not go see her? Harlaw is only a day's sail, and surely Lady Greyjoy yearns for a last sight of her son."
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
After Spooner made his documentary, he realized how much the film resonated with Black punks who yearned for community and acceptance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
That’s the Appalachian landscape that Baurichter, a writer and stay-at-home mother in Higginsport, yearned to return to after a stint in Cincinnati for college.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
But Schulte’s surveys and focus groups clearly showed that men yearned to contribute to care and share obligations equally with women.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
But I yearned for a way of understanding the world that could make room for both the importance of my past and the existence of my own agency.”
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
Half of Harry yearned to hear more, half of him was afraid of what might come next.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
But I do see yearning as more of a practice than a theory these days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
In so many ways, the works that remain tell the deepest, truest story of yearning, resilience, love—of all that cannot be spoken.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
The effect is less a fall than a settling—from yearning into tenderness, like an audible sigh.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
"So I was personally yearning for hooks and verses that are as powerful as choruses. Like an Elton John song where the melody just breaks your heart."
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Only one treasure could ignite that deep greedy yearning in Dimarion’s voice.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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.
