Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use yearn in a sentence

35 example sentences · verb, noun

Yearn means to have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something. Example: “All I yearn for is a simple life.”

Examples of yearn by meaning

verbTo have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.

  • All I yearn for is a simple life.
  • 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...

verbTo long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia.

  • If I don’t go now, thought Charlotte, I shall have lost a chance which I shall eternally regret and yearn after.1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published February 1972, →ISBN, page 420
  • Having shaken the dust of the ugly new South Africa from his feet, is he yearning for the South Africa of the old days, when Eden was still possible?2002, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 17, in Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II, 1st American edition, London: Vintage Books, →ISBN...

nounA strong desire or longing; a yearning, a yen.

  • Gibbs now said he wasn't going to pull any punches with Gary when he knew how jealous a man could get, so he also wanted to tell him that Phil Hansen was reputed to have a yearn for attractive ladies.1979, Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song
  • "After he had made a record date with us in 1935, I always had a yearn for Ben," he said years later.2010, Frank Buchmann-Moller, Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 57
  • "My guess, however, is that it has because there are many people who have a yearn for sex outside their relationship but wouldn't have the slightest idea about how to do it or do it safely," Prof Schwartz added.2014 February 13, AFP, “Why internet adultery numbers are soaring”, in New Zealand Herald

More sentences with yearn

  • 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
  • But Philip still yearns for an old flame: Schiffer, an Oscar-winning actress.2008 September 25, Lev Grossman, “Text and the City”, in Time. From the entry old flame
  • 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
  • Unwanted tears rolled down my cheeks and I yearned for a mother's love.1922, L. M. Zimmerman, For Love's Sake, page 130. From the entry blithesomely
  • Why do they yearn to be presented at courts which look down on them as successful shopkeeperesses?1911 June 10, “American Women, Coronations, and Courts”, in The Argonaut, volume LXVIII, number 1785, San Francisco, page 370. From the entry shopkeeperess
  • Why do they yearn to be presented at courts which look down on them as successful shopkeepresses?1911 June 16, “American Duchesses”, in The Chico Enterprise, Chico, Calif., page two. From the entry shopkeepress
  • It also isn’t going to be broadcast on TV networks that yearn to re-create the previous century’s monoculture.2023 September 27, Spencer Kornhaber, “The Weirdos Living Inside Our Phones”, in The Atlantic. From the entry monoculture
  • When she reached the crossroads where the trail split, one part of her yearned to head toward the lake.2010, Raeanne Thayne, A Cold Creek Baby, page 199. From the entry crossroads
  • It yearned to get off my body and back on the pale, slopey runway model where it made sense.2008 February 7, Mike Albo, “Just Browsing, Ogling, Prattling, Giggling”, in New York Times. From the entry slopey
  • People just don’t yearn with such literary fervor anymore.2003 October 19, Charles McGrath, “Film: Authors of Their Own Demise; Gwyneth’s Degree in Plathology”, in The New York Times, New York…. From the entry cell-phone
  • All such donors really yearn for others to see that the honored one lives in a tent they share.1970, Hortense Calisher, “Mr Nabokov's tent”, in Alfred Appel, Charles Newman, editors, Nabokov: criticism, reminiscences, translations…. From the entry contubernal
  • Love them, pray and yearn for them.1921 July 21, L.C. Barnes, “Antidotes for Romaphobia”, in The Watchman-Examiner: A National Baptist Paper, volume 9, number 29, page 919. From the entry Romaphobia
  • Why, then, do American women yearn to be a part of such a society, even on its outer fringe?1911 June 10, “American Women, Coronations, and Courts”, in The Argonaut, volume LXVIII, number 1785, San Francisco, page 370. From the entry shopkeeperess
  • Their souls will yearn to beat as one, once again and this can only be done by the sealing of the bond.2014, Holly Newhouse, The Twin Souls. From the entry beat as one
  • I heard the words we had yearned for since March: They had found a donor marrow, mismatched at one antigen, that might work for Jane.2005, Donald Hall, The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 101. From the entry zing
  • Those who yearn for skyhooks call those who eagerly settle for cranes "reductionists", and they can often make reductionism seem philistine and heartless.1995, Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, →ISBN, page 80. From the entry skyhook
  • Ivy yearned to be grown up.1986, Mary Stolz, Ivy Larkin, published 1989, →ISBN, page 19. From the entry hocus and pocus
  • I'm with yearn, (my) sweetheart's too; Both of us should have a doctor, Doctor to bedoctor us, To deliver us from yearning.1967, Béla Bartók, Benjamin Suchoff, Rumanian Folk Music. From the entry bedoctor
  • The biennial profusion of campaign billboards and posters stipples the land that Lady Bird wants to beautify and Lyndon yearns to own.1966 October 14, “Charisma, Calluses and Cash”, in Time. From the entry stipple
  • The young alphabetarian had acquired sufficient learning to lead him to yearn for more; enough to stir his imagination; to give him notions.1963, Forbes Parkhill, Mister Barney Ford: A Portrait in Bistre. From the entry alphabetarian
  • He yearns for his village chowpal (meeting place) and fondly remembers the pleasant nights he spent in bhajan, kirtan, or folksongs with his village companions.1946, Report of the Health Survey and Development Committee, volume 3, page 93. From the entry chowpal
  • More: he now yearned as avidly for this submergedness, this union of all things living, as he had hitherto shrunk from it.1930, Henry Handel Richardson, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, The Text Publishing Company, published 2012, page 837. From the entry submergedness
  • He yearned to strike with the working edge of the blade, but was not ready to leave himself effectively wizardless in the face of the enemy.2003, Fred Saberhagen, Empire of the East, page 425. From the entry wizardless
  • The Uighurs yearn for reestablishment of the once independent Central Asian republic that was called Eastern Turkestan and had its capital in Yining 50 years ago.1997 February 23, Steven Mufson, “ETHNIC TURMOIL ROILS WESTERN CHINA”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on…. From the entry Yining
  • As your Senior Tutor, I am your moral guardian,’ he said at last. ‘A moral guardian yearns for an immoral ward and the Lord has provided.1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 52. From the entry guardian
  • Sadly I dropped them back into my pocket, sadly we yearned toward the blessed stove and the armchairs, and sadly we went out into the frosty night.1907 December, Jack London, “Hoboes That Pass In The Night”, in The Cosmopolitan, volume 44, number 2, page 193. From the entry your money is no good here

Meaning of yearn

  1. verb To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.
  2. verb To long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia.
  3. verb Of music, words, etc.: to express strong desire or longing.

Full definition of yearn

Questions about yearn in a sentence

How do you use yearn in a sentence?
Yearn is used as a verb and noun. For example: “All I yearn for is a simple life.”
What is a short sentence with yearn?
“Ivy yearned to be grown up.”
What does yearn mean?
Yearn means to have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: yearn (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use yearn in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/yearn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.