yen
1 Americannoun
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yen
plural
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an aluminum coin and monetary unit of Japan, equal to 100 sen or 1000 rin. ¥; Y
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a former silver coin of Japan.
noun
verb (used without object)
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yens,
present (3rd person singular)
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yenned,
past participle, past
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yenning
present participle
noun
verb
noun
Usage
What does yen mean? Yen is a monetary unit of Japan similar to a dollar. It comes in the form of a coin that’s also called a yen. The symbol for yen is ¥. Like a dollar, it can be divided into 100 parts called sen (though sen are not used in practice). The plural of yen is yen. Unrelatedly, yen is a slang term meaning a strong craving, desire, or yearning. It’s especially used in the phrase have a yen for. It can also be used as a verb meaning to crave or strongly desire. Example: Ever since I came back from Italy, I’ve had a yen for fresh pasta.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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yensimple
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yenssimple
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have yennedperfect
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has yennedperfect
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am yenningprogressive
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are yenningprogressive
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is yenningprogressive
-
have been yenningperfect progressive
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has been yenningperfect progressive
Past
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yennedsimple
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had yennedperfect
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was yenningprogressive
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were yenningprogressive
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had been yenningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of yen1
1870–75; < Japanese ( y ) en < Chinese yuán yuan
Origin of yen2
1905–10, probably < dialectal Chinese (OAGuangdong) yáhn, akin to Chinese yǐn craving, addiction
Explanation
Besides being the name of the Japanese currency, yen (a different yen) means a casual desire. You can have a yen for sushi, and if you're in Japan, you can pay for the sushi with the yen in your wallet. Yen is a casual word––think of it like "hankering." If you have an easy time remembering rhymes, think "I sometimes have a yen, to go back home again." Sometimes yen can even work as a verb––you can yen for pancakes, or yen for truffles, or yen for a time when you yenned for things other than food.
Vocabulary lists containing yen
100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 2
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East Asia - Middle School
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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 dollar is at 157.91 yen, down from Y158.35 as of Wednesday’s Tokyo stock market close.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
The dollar is at 158.42 yen, compared with Y158.18 as of Tuesday’s Tokyo stock market close.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
The U.S. bank has a buy rating and a target price of 5,000 yen on the stock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Before the hikes, it would cost non-permanent residents in Japan 6,000 yen each time they applied to change their residency status or extend their period of stay.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Probably he had some endearing trait: he whistled, offkey, in the shower, he had a yen for truffles, he called his dog Liebchen and made it sit up for little pieces of raw steak.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
On the currency front, the yen weakened 0.1% against the dollar to 155.67 yens.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
Mr. Zorn’s way of presenting “Masada” — a project he first introduced 25 years ago — submits the material fully to the yens of its many performers.
From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2018
The typical buyer is a fast tracker between 35 and 40 who yens for something more than an "off the peg" Hatteras 61-footer.
From Time Magazine Archive
But nowadays, for U.S. sportsmen with low budgets and yens for high adventure, there's Costa Rica right next door.
From Time Magazine Archive
The volume of our commerce has risen from a few millions to six or seven hundred million yens in less than forty years.
From A Fantasy of Far Japan Summer Dream Dialogues by Baron Kencho Suyematsu
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.
