Yearn
verb
To have a strong, often sad desire for something or someone.
She yearned for a visit from her kids.
Often appears as...
- yearn for
- yearn to do something
verb
To feel a strong emotional desire or craving.
He yearned to make a difference in the world.
Often appears as...
- yearn for acceptance
- yearn for affection
verb
To feel deep compassion or sympathy.
She yearned over the poor suffering child.
Often appears as...
- yearn over
- yearn for solace
Usage tips
Literary
verb
To have a strong, often sad desire for something or someone.
She yearned for a visit from her kids.
Often appears as...
- yearn for
- yearn to do something
verb
To feel a strong emotional desire or craving.
He yearned to make a difference in the world.
Often appears as...
- yearn for acceptance
- yearn for affection
verb
To feel deep compassion or sympathy.
She yearned over the poor suffering child.
Often appears as...
- yearn over
- yearn for solace
Usage tips
Literary
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Intensity
Yearn represents a deep emotional desire, more intense than just wanting something
She yearned for a peaceful moment amid the chaos.
Pro Tip 2/3Often Melancholic
Yearning typically involves a sense of loss or absence.
He yearned for his homeland, missing the streets he grew up on.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Instantly Gratified
Yearn implies something not easily or quickly satisfied.
After many years abroad, she still yearned to reconnect with her past.
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Intensity
Yearn represents a deep emotional desire, more intense than just wanting something
She yearned for a peaceful moment amid the chaos.
Pro Tip 2/3Often Melancholic
Yearning typically involves a sense of loss or absence.
He yearned for his homeland, missing the streets he grew up on.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Instantly Gratified
Yearn implies something not easily or quickly satisfied.
After many years abroad, she still yearned to reconnect with her past.
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Intensity
Yearn represents a deep emotional desire, more intense than just wanting something
She yearned for a peaceful moment amid the chaos.
Pro Tip 2/3Often Melancholic
Yearning typically involves a sense of loss or absence.
He yearned for his homeland, missing the streets he grew up on.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Instantly Gratified
Yearn implies something not easily or quickly satisfied.
After many years abroad, she still yearned to reconnect with her past.
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Video examples
Daniel Wolpert: The real...
Does that mean that you think that the other things we think our brains are about -- the dreaming, the yearning, the falling in love and all these things -- are a kind of side show, an accident? No, no, actually I think they're all important to drive the right movement behavior to get reproduction in the end. So I think people who study sensation or memory
Video examples
Notes of a native son:...
he began writing novels and essays while taking a series of odd jobs. But the issues that had driven him away from the Church were still inescapable in his daily life. Constantly confronted with racism and homophobia, he was angry and disillusioned, and yearned for a less restricted life.
Video examples
The way we think about...
I want to talk about how the things we've been taught to think about giving and about charity and about the nonprofit sector, are actually undermining the causes we love, and our profound yearning to change the world. But before I do that, I want to ask if we even believe
Video examples
How I became an...
And I am doing the most rewarding and meaningful work of my life right now. I can tell you there's lots of resources available to entrepreneurs of all ages, but what I really yearned for five years ago was to find other first-time entrepreneurs
Video examples
How can we make music...
studio I was yearning for new ideas new sounds and more than anything else a new sense of meaning playing with sensors that track see like physical signals like brainwaves heartbeats motion I became fascinated with translating the
Video examples
Gelada Baboon Sexual...
being sexually harassed by unattached males there's no shortage of them gangs of frustrated young bachelors lurk around the edges of the troop sexually mature they each yearn for their own family of females and frequently make
Video examples
Cosmos: A Spacetime...
spirit that yearns to really know the universe as it is science is a beautiful and emotional human endeavor and cosmos is all about making science and experience we were able to make it exciting and feel like a cinematic
Video examples
Billy Graham:...
that is beyond our understanding. That's the part of us that yearns for God, or something more than we find in technology. Your soul is that part of you that yearns for meaning in life,
Video examples
Karen Armstrong: 2008...
into public life, in a way that I'd never imagined, I've been able to sort of go all over the world, and finding, everywhere I go, a yearning for change.
Video examples
Why you think you're...
Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs? Or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can? Thank you.
Video examples
Daniel Wolpert: The real...
Does that mean that you think that the other things we think our brains are about -- the dreaming, the yearning, the falling in love and all these things -- are a kind of side show, an accident? No, no, actually I think they're all important to drive the right movement behavior to get reproduction in the end. So I think people who study sensation or memory
Video examples
Notes of a native son:...
he began writing novels and essays while taking a series of odd jobs. But the issues that had driven him away from the Church were still inescapable in his daily life. Constantly confronted with racism and homophobia, he was angry and disillusioned, and yearned for a less restricted life.
Video examples
The way we think about...
I want to talk about how the things we've been taught to think about giving and about charity and about the nonprofit sector, are actually undermining the causes we love, and our profound yearning to change the world. But before I do that, I want to ask if we even believe
Video examples
How I became an...
And I am doing the most rewarding and meaningful work of my life right now. I can tell you there's lots of resources available to entrepreneurs of all ages, but what I really yearned for five years ago was to find other first-time entrepreneurs
Video examples
How can we make music...
studio I was yearning for new ideas new sounds and more than anything else a new sense of meaning playing with sensors that track see like physical signals like brainwaves heartbeats motion I became fascinated with translating the
Video examples
Gelada Baboon Sexual...
being sexually harassed by unattached males there's no shortage of them gangs of frustrated young bachelors lurk around the edges of the troop sexually mature they each yearn for their own family of females and frequently make
Video examples
Cosmos: A Spacetime...
spirit that yearns to really know the universe as it is science is a beautiful and emotional human endeavor and cosmos is all about making science and experience we were able to make it exciting and feel like a cinematic
Video examples
Billy Graham:...
that is beyond our understanding. That's the part of us that yearns for God, or something more than we find in technology. Your soul is that part of you that yearns for meaning in life,
Video examples
Karen Armstrong: 2008...
into public life, in a way that I'd never imagined, I've been able to sort of go all over the world, and finding, everywhere I go, a yearning for change.
Video examples
Why you think you're...
Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs? Or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can? Thank you.
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
John Cho
American Actor
Star Trek' seems to be an appeal to our better nature, the side of ourselves that works toward peace and cooperation and understanding and knowledge and yearns to seek out knowledge rather than the side that wants to divide and control one another.
Quote examples
Jason Robert Brown
American Musician
As much as I can act, I don't have anything in me that yearns to be an actor - that sense of needing to be onstage, in costume, in character; that is utterly not interesting to me.
Quote examples
Johan Huizinga
Dutch Historian
Every age yearns for a more beautiful world. The deeper the desperation and the depression about the confusing present, the more intense that yearning.
Quote examples
Harriet Beecher Stowe
American Author
In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.
Quote examples
Julie Andrews
English Actress
My mother was terribly important to me, and I know how much I yearned for her in my youth, but I don't think I truly trusted her.
Quote examples
Jane Fallon
English Author
Whenever I'm out, I have a bit of a yearning to be in my house, to be able to shut the door on the world.
Quote examples
Jacqueline Novogratz
American Businesswoman
People across the world are yearning to be connected to stories of hope.
Quote examples
Lillian Gish
American Actress
A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning.
Quote examples
Andre Breton
French Poet
All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.
Quote examples
Ray Fisher
American Actor
Obviously, the world is yearning for more diversity.
Quote examples
John Cho
American Actor
Star Trek' seems to be an appeal to our better nature, the side of ourselves that works toward peace and cooperation and understanding and knowledge and yearns to seek out knowledge rather than the side that wants to divide and control one another.
Quote examples
Jason Robert Brown
American Musician
As much as I can act, I don't have anything in me that yearns to be an actor - that sense of needing to be onstage, in costume, in character; that is utterly not interesting to me.
Quote examples
Johan Huizinga
Dutch Historian
Every age yearns for a more beautiful world. The deeper the desperation and the depression about the confusing present, the more intense that yearning.
Quote examples
Harriet Beecher Stowe
American Author
In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.
Quote examples
Julie Andrews
English Actress
My mother was terribly important to me, and I know how much I yearned for her in my youth, but I don't think I truly trusted her.
Quote examples
Jane Fallon
English Author
Whenever I'm out, I have a bit of a yearning to be in my house, to be able to shut the door on the world.
Quote examples
Jacqueline Novogratz
American Businesswoman
People across the world are yearning to be connected to stories of hope.
Quote examples
Lillian Gish
American Actress
A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning.
Quote examples
Andre Breton
French Poet
All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.
Quote examples
Ray Fisher
American Actor
Obviously, the world is yearning for more diversity.
Example 1 of 10
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