YEARN
What does "YEARN" mean?
To feel a deep, often wistful longing for someone or something.
Meanings
- To have an intense, often sorrowful or tender longing. After years abroad, she yearned for the smell of her mother's kitchen.
- To feel tenderness, pity, or compassion toward someone. His heart yearned over the lost children. archaic
Did you know?
- 'Yearn' shares an ancient root with the Greek 'khairein', 'to rejoice' - the same family that gives us 'charisma', linking aching desire to joy.
Word origin
From Old English 'giernan' (to strive, desire, beg), from a Germanic root meaning eager or willing; related to Greek 'khairein' (to rejoice) and the English word 'yare'.
Remember it
YEARN holds EARN: you yearn for what you have not yet earned, and the gap is the ache.
A little poem
The lit window glows-
a door I will not knock on
yet stand near, and warm.
haiku
Wordplay
- I yearn to be a baker, but I haven't earned enough dough.
What it teaches
To yearn is to be alive in the direction of something; aim the ache, don't only nurse it.
Quick facts
What does YEARN mean?
To feel a deep, often wistful longing for someone or something.
Is YEARN a valid word?
Yes — YEARN is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is YEARN?
YEARN has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does YEARN come from?
From Old English 'giernan' (to strive, desire, beg), from a Germanic root meaning eager or willing; related to Greek 'khairein' (to rejoice) and the English word 'yare'.
What can YEARN teach us?
To yearn is to be alive in the direction of something; aim the ache, don't only nurse it.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.