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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
Jenni Reid,lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 11 Mar. 2025
The Japanese yen reached its strongest in five months against the dollar before giving up gains to trade flat at 147.2 JPY=EBS.
—Ankur Banerjee and Alun John, USA TODAY, 11 Mar. 2025
Isaka laid out a turnaround plan in October, aiming to roughly double sales to 30 trillion yen by 2030 by expanding overseas and focusing on fresh-food offerings.
—Reuters, CNN, 6 Mar. 2025
Coming in at 32,000 yen (or around $212 at the time of writing), that’s a lot less than the eye-watering 58,000 yen (or around $385 at the time of writing) for their original Dancouga toy.
—Ollie Barder, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for yen
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Noun
Nissan cut its forecasts for the full year to the end of March for both revenue and operating profit to 12.5 trillion yen and 120 billion yen, respectively, down from 12.7 trillion yen and 150 billion yen.
—Jenni Reid,lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 11 Mar. 2025
The Japanese yen reached its strongest in five months against the dollar before giving up gains to trade flat at 147.2 JPY=EBS.
—Ankur Banerjee and Alun John, USA TODAY, 11 Mar. 2025
Isaka laid out a turnaround plan in October, aiming to roughly double sales to 30 trillion yen by 2030 by expanding overseas and focusing on fresh-food offerings.
—Reuters, CNN, 6 Mar. 2025
Coming in at 32,000 yen (or around $212 at the time of writing), that’s a lot less than the eye-watering 58,000 yen (or around $385 at the time of writing) for their original Dancouga toy.
—Ollie Barder, Forbes, 3 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 25 Mar. 2025.
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