Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

yearning

/ˈjɝnɪŋ/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.24 in modern English

Syllables: yearn-ing
IPA: /ˈjɝnɪŋ/

12

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A wistful or melancholy longing.

verb

present participle and gerund of yearn

noun

Rennet (an enzyme to curdle milk in order to make cheese).

Archaic; Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"She had a yearning to see her long-lost sister again."
"I've got this burning, yearning, yearning / Feeling inside me / Ooh, deep inside me / And it hurts so bad"
"Mrs. MacClarty then took down a bottle of rennet, or yearning, as she called it."

Etymology

From Middle English yerning, from Old English ġierning, ġierninge. Equivalent to the gerund (yearn + -ing). yearn comes from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan, from Proto-Germanic *girnijaną, from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) + *-janą, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to yearn for”). By surface analysis, yearn + -ing.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: *gʰer-, yerning, ġierning, *girnijan, *girnijaną, *h₃er-

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈjɝnɪŋ/
British English: /ˈjɜːnɪŋ/

Usage

Inflected Forms

yearnings (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

yearn earn rennet

Synonyms

longing hungriness

Rhymes With

learning turning burning returning concerning earning churning discerning durning adjourning spurning berning

Questions

How do you pronounce yearning?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈjɝnɪŋ/.
What does yearning mean?: A wistful or melancholy longing.
Where does yearning come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce yearning

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “yearning”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈjɝnɪŋ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “yearning”.
Repeat and practice — Say “yearning” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.