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Although yen suggests no more than a strong desire these days (as in "a yen for a beach vacation"), at one time someone with a yen was in deep trouble: the first meaning of yen was an intense craving for opium. The word comes from Cantonese yīn-yáhn, a combination of yīn, meaning "opium," and yáhn, "craving." In English, the Chinese syllables were translated as yen-yen.
Examples of yen in a Sentence
Noun (2)
I have a strange yen to take the day off from work
Verb
what car lover doesn't yen for a new car at the start of every model year
Recent Examples on the Web
Kayti Burt, Time, 23 Apr. 2025
March to June 2025 prices for a two-day journey are from 680,000 yen a person, or about $4,575, and from 1,300,000 yen for a four-day journey.
—The New York Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Apr. 2025
Japan's global trade deficit totaled 5.2 trillion yen ($36.5 billion) for the fiscal year through March, for the fourth straight year of deficits.
—Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Apr. 2025
But entitlement demands continue to dominate spending as the single largest government expenditure, with over 37.7 trillion yen ($222 billion), or 33.5 percent of the national budget, allocated for social security in 2024—three times the level in 1990.
—Tom Le, Foreign Affairs, 28 Mar. 2025
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Noun
In the 2025 sequel, the train’s speed can’t dip below 100 kilometers per hour or roughly 62 mph (the train can reach a top speed of 320 kilometers per hour, or roughly 199 mph), and the ransom is a whopping 100 billion yen (roughly $710,360,000).
—Kayti Burt, Time, 23 Apr. 2025
March to June 2025 prices for a two-day journey are from 680,000 yen a person, or about $4,575, and from 1,300,000 yen for a four-day journey.
—The New York Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Apr. 2025
Japan's global trade deficit totaled 5.2 trillion yen ($36.5 billion) for the fiscal year through March, for the fourth straight year of deficits.
—Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Apr. 2025
But entitlement demands continue to dominate spending as the single largest government expenditure, with over 37.7 trillion yen ($222 billion), or 33.5 percent of the national budget, allocated for social security in 2024—three times the level in 1990.
—Tom Le, Foreign Affairs, 28 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for yen
Cite this Entry
“Yen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yen. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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