Meaning & use
yearner
Last updated
UK/ˈjɜːnə/
US/ˈjɝːnɚ/
Meaning
nouncountable
Someone who feels a deep, wistful longing for something distant, lost or hard to reach.
Grammar: Often followed by for: a yearner for the past.
Patterns
- a yearner for something
- a yearner after something
He was a lifelong yearner for the sea he left as a boy.
The poem is addressed to a yearner who cannot stop looking back.
As a yearner for simpler times, she kept her grandmother's radio.
Word forms
| plural | yearners |
|---|
Common combinations
- a yearner for the past
- He was a quiet yearner for the past.
- a restless yearner
- The novel's hero is a restless yearner who never settles.
- born yearner
- She was a born yearner, always dreaming of far places.
- a yearner after truth
- The philosopher was a yearner after truth.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dreamer
- Dreamer is neutral and may imply impractical plans, while yearner stresses emotional longing.
- romantic
- Romantic suggests idealism in general, not a specific ache for something absent.
- longer
- Longer in this sense is archaic and rarely used.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: yearner or learner?
yearner vs learner
Learner sounds similar but means someone studying a subject, not someone longing.
Practice
Which sentence uses yearner correctly?
Choose one answer.
Yearner is a noun meaning a person who longs for something. The other sentences use it without that meaning, or as a verb.
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