Yearningly
What it means
With deep and earnest longing.
Reach for it when showing desire through voice, gaze, or gesture when the feeling is tender rather than demanding
She looked yearningly toward the music school across the square.
Words to choose between 6
| playful | |
|---|---|
| everyday | |
| warm | |
| literary |
|
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playful
hungrily
Fits when appetite is used as an intense metaphor
Careful Hungrily can feel possessive or sexual and may distort tender longing.
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everyday
Fits when keen anticipation is brighter than longing
Careful Eagerness may be cheerful and lacks yearning's ache.
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warm
achingly
Fits when the desire feels emotionally painful
Careful Achingly heightens suffering beyond many yearning looks.
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warm
longingly
Fits when sustained desire is the plain emotional fact
Careful Longingly is more familiar and carries less literary delicacy.
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literary
plaintively
Fits when the expression sounds sorrowful or pleading
Careful Plaintively makes distress more prominent than desire.
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literary
wistfully
Fits when longing is softened by sadness or impossibility
Careful Wistfulness can dwell on the past without wanting action now.
Opposites 3
- indifferently
- contentedly
- reluctantly
Common phrases 3
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look yearningly
He would look yearningly at the workshop until a place opened.
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speak yearningly
She did not need to speak yearningly for the committee to hear her hope.
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reach yearningly
The child began to reach yearningly toward the familiar violin.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Dvortygirl, American accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 Updated