yen

CEFRB2

/jɛn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The main unit of money in Japan.

  2. 02

    noun

    A strong desire for something.

Examples

  • A thousand yen is owed to you.

  • The balance at the bank stands at two million yen.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A coin or note worth one yen.

  2. A strong desire, urge, or yearning.

  3. The unit of Japanese currency (symbol: ¥) since 1871, divided into 100 sen.

More examples

In context

  • The picture you are looking at costs 100,000 yen.

  • humankind's yen for knowledge

  • She repeated the words: "You for me and me for you," then hummed: "Two for tea and tea for two …" Her voice trailed off … "All I got is a yen for Diana and my sweet little cute little Zigzag."

Synonyms

Quick test

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Nearby

Origin

noun

From Medhurst and Hepburn’s romanizations, under the influence of earlier Portuguese romanizations, of Japanese 圓(えん) (en, “round; a round object”) as ye or yen, now 円(えん) (en), from Chinese 銀圓 /银圆 (yínyuán, “round silver object(s), especially a piece of eight”): 銀 /银 (yín, “silver”) + 圓 /圆 (yuán, “circular, round; yuan, yen, dollar”). Cognate with Chinese 元 (yuán, “monetary unit, especially RMB”) and Korean 원 (won, “North or South Korean won”). Doublet of won and yuan.