yen
5
7.5
- noun
- /jɛn/
:
anhelo
- He has a yen for adventure and wants to travel the world.
- yen for travel
- a strong yen
- a big yen
Examples
-
Listen, honey, you've got quite a yen for that boy, haven't you?
-
The thought filled him with sadness, lust, and a yen to move.
Fiction book (2000) -
More and more, when I have a yen for something, I really examine why I want it.
Blog text (12) -
I've always had a little yen to run a club.
-
I got kind of a yen to see my old lady and Francey.
-
"For about a week I've had a yen for Mission orange soda," he said.
Fiction book (1998) -
I have a yen for a little house in the country... and the fireside... and carpet slippers for the old man.
-
Just an ordinary eight-to-fiver with a yen for picket fences.
-
So he'd always had this kind of yen for adventure for the double life behind this mild mannered facade.
-
From what you've told me before, you've had an abiding yen for this mystical lady for a decade or more. "Since college, yeah."
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
∞
1.6
A strong wish to have or experience something
299
2.1
A desire to eat or to have new experiences
78
3.7
A very strong desire for things like food or cigarettes
27
1.0
A strong desire for something you wish to have
11
6.6
A strong wish to have or do something
Antonyms
How Strong
Surface Forms
Etymology
A helpful way to remember the noun yen meaning 'a strong desire' is to think of it like yearn, since both mean a deep want; the English sense came from a Chinese word for 'desire' used by early immigrants, so a yen today is a powerful wish or craving.