- present participle of yearn.
yearning
Americannoun
-
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:
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
But on the eve of her 22nd birthday, Selines — who speaks in the same honeyed, dulcet tones she sings in — admits that she cringes at the sound of her own teen yearning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
In its sense of upward lift, it speaks of striving and aspiration and of almost inexpressible yearning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
You might reasonably assume this would leave the finished dish tasting as though it were yearning for a blanket of Gruyère and a broiler.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
I touch the edge of one drawing—a close-up of a horse with long eyelashes and clear, yearning brown eyes.
From "Towers Falling" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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
Mr. Filończyk, making his Met debut, displayed a dark, expressive baritone; it helped contrast the older Joe’s buried trauma and Sam’s yearnings, sung in Mr. Mykkanen’s more open, poignant tenor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2025
Jimmy Carter once said, “We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2024
It comes from primitive yearnings for permanent idealized parents from childhood, or from replacements for disappointing parents.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2024
Hatsue had been taken from his life by history, because history was whimsical and immune to private yearnings.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
