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Although yen suggests no more than a strong desire these days (as in "a yen for a beach vacation"), at one time someone with a yen was in deep trouble: the first meaning of yen was an intense craving for opium. The word comes from Cantonese yīn-yáhn, a combination of yīn, meaning "opium," and yáhn, "craving." In English, the Chinese syllables were translated as yen-yen.
Synonyms
Examples of yen in a Sentence
Nicholas Gordon, Fortune Asia, 16 May 2024
Slovak news outlets, citing police sources, identified him as a 71-year-old pensioner with a yen for poetry and protests.
—Cassandra Vinograd, New York Times, 16 May 2024
Nintendo estimates net sales of 1.35 trillion yen and net profit of 300 billion yen.
—Jennifer Maas, Variety, 7 May 2024
The Super Famicom prototype being auctioned today is, as of this writing, sitting at just over one million yen (just shy of $7,000 USD), with more than five days to go.
—Wes Davis, The Verge, 6 May 2024
The Tokyo District Court suit demands 1.4 million yen ($9,400) in damages for 63 medical professionals, for reviews posted on Google Maps.
—Yuri Kageyama, Quartz, 22 Apr. 2024
The entrance fee at both is 400 yen (about $2.65) for adults and 300 yen (about $2) for children.
—Paula Deitz, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Apr. 2024
The Japanese sent specialists to the capital, Kathmandu, to help Nepali farmers get serious about making the stuff of cold, hard yen.
—Alex Travelli Uma Bista, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2024
Police suspect that Yamakawa’s total profit amounted to millions of yen (equivalent to anywhere between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars), and an investigation is underway.
—Amrita Khalid, The Verge, 12 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'yen.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near yen
Cite this Entry
“Yen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yen. Accessed 21 May. 2024.
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