How is the word yearn distinct from other similar verbs?
Some common synonyms of yearn are hanker, hunger, long, pine, and thirst. While all these words mean "to have a strong desire for something," yearn suggests an eager, restless, or painful longing.
yearned for a stage career
Where would hanker be a reasonable alternative to yearn?
The synonyms hanker and yearn are sometimes interchangeable, but hanker suggests the uneasy promptings of unsatisfied appetite or desire.
always hankering for money
How are the words hunger and thirst related as synonyms of yearn?
Both hunger and thirst imply an insistent or impatient craving or a compelling need.
hungered for a business of his own
thirsted for power
When could long be used to replace yearn?
Although the words long and yearn have much in common, long implies a wishing with one's whole heart and often a striving to attain.
longed for some rest
When might pine be a better fit than yearn?
The words pine and yearn can be used in similar contexts, but pine implies a languishing or a fruitless longing for what is impossible.
pined for a lost love
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of yearnSinners is one of the great vampire movies of the modern age, mining the legend of these perpetual outsiders who desperately yearn to belong.—Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 4 June 2025 But today, people are again yearning for the banjo’s groove.—Essence, 29 May 2025 Those who yearn for a front seat to calm ocean vistas might consider staying in one of these remote cabins—hidden gems nestled right on Chile’s Pacific coast, near the village of Matanzas.—Kimberley Mok, Travel + Leisure, 26 May 2025 Pep Guardiola has rarely yearned for a comeback more.—Phil Hay, New York Times, 21 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for yearn
In the 1600s, a Swiss medical student named Johannes Hofer studied mercenaries in the Italian and French lowlands who longed desperately for their mountain homelands.
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Chelsea Reid,
The Conversation,
17 June 2025
Amputees who long to go for a casual run—or snowboard, or ski—need affordable prosthetic solutions for lower or upper limbs.
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