Past tense of yearn
regular verb
The past tense of yearn is yearned. The past participle is also yearned.
Forms of yearn
| Base form (V1) | yearn /jɜːn/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | yearned |
| Past participle (V3) | yearned |
| Present participle | yearning /ˈjɝnɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | yearns |
Yearned in a sentence
- And Jim supported his twitching body by holding on to the sink, the while he yearned toward the yellowish concoction that stood for life.1911 January, Jack London, “Just Meat”, in When God Laughs and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 125
- But all that night his body yearned for Alec's, despite him.1913–1960 (writing and revisions), E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 40, in Maurice, London: Penguin Books, published 1971 (1987...
- She didn't want to marry the boy next door: she yearned for the big city.From the entry boy next door
- If you've ever yearned for an idyllic life in the country, then cottagecore is for you.2021, Emily Kent, The Little Book of Cottagecore: Traditional Skills for a Simpler Life, page 5. From the entry cottagecore
- The cliff beckoned, the button itched, it yearned to be pressed.1979 March 29, Ted Page, “Armidillo Bomb”, in Massachusetts Daily Collegian, volume CVIII, number [108], Amherst, Mass.: University of…. From the entry fingy
Meaning of yearn
- verb To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.
- verb To long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia.
- verb Of music, words, etc.: to express strong desire or longing.
Questions about the past tense of yearn
- What is the past tense of yearn?
- The past tense of yearn is yearned.
- What is the past participle of yearn?
- The past participle of yearn is yearned.
- Is yearn a regular or irregular verb?
- Yearn is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: yearn (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of yearn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/yearn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.