Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Yawning |
YawningAdjective1. Gaping open as if threatening to engulf someone or something; "the yawning mine shaft"; "a yawning abyss". 2. With the mouth wide open indicating boredom or sleepiness; "a yawning congregation". 3. Showing lack of attention or boredom; "the yawning congregation". Noun1. An involuntary intake of breath through a wide open mouth; usually triggered by fatigue or boredom. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "yawning" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | If you yawn in your dreams, you will search in vain for health and contentment. To see others yawning, foretells that you will see some of your friends in a miserable state. Sickness will prevent them from their usual labors. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Health | An involuntary deep inspiration with the mouth open, often accompanied by the act of stretching. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: YawningSynonyms: drowsy (adj), oscitant (adj), yawning(a) (adj), yawn (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Depth | Bottomless, soundless, fathomless; unfathomed, unfathomable; abysmal; deep as a well; bathycolpian; benthal, benthopelagic; downreaching, yawning. |
Fatigue | Noun: fatigue; weariness; yawning, drowsiness; lassitude, tiredness, fatigation, exhaustion; sweat; dyspnoea. |
Interval | Gorge, defile, ravine, canon, crevasse, abyss, abysm; gulf; inlet, frith, strait, gully; pass; furrow; abra; barranca, barranco; clove, gulch, notch; yawning gulf; hiatus maxime, hiatus valde deflendus; parenthesis; (interjacence); void c. (absence); incompleteness. |
Opening | Opening; aperture, apertness; hiation, yawning, oscitancy, dehiscence, patefaction, pandiculation; chasm; (interval). |
Adjective: open; perforated; Verb: perforate; wide open, ajar, unclosed, unstopped; oscitant, gaping, yawning; patent. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Yawning |
| English words defined with "yawning": drowsy ♦ Oscitancy, oscitant, Oscitation ♦ pandiculation ♦ The gapes ♦ Yawningly. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "yawning": Bailleur ♦ Cavern or Cave ♦ Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome ♦ Precipice. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Lyrics | I'm rockin' and you're yawning (Hip-Hop Hooray; performing artist: Naughty By Nature) I wake next morning, tired, still yawning (Pictures Of Matchstick Men; performing artist: The Status Quo) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Pan American Martin Clipper: Berths, upper passenger yawning. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Venturing a little too near the Yawning Chasm, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S.A. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | William Jennings Bryan, yawning, in the courtroom at the Scopes trial. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Stretching and yawning, 2nd Division. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Man yawning. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Robert Burton | Why doth one man's yawning make another yawn? |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He plunged into that darkness as into a yawning gulf. |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | The families moved lazily to their sleep, yawning luxuriously. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Self-care practices, for example, eating soft foods, applying heat or ice packs, and avoiding extreme jaw movements (such as wide yawning, loud singing and gum chewing) are useful in easing TMD symptoms. (references) | |
The National Sleep Foundation says that if you have trouble keeping your eyes focused, if you can't stop yawning, or if you can't remember driving the last few miles, you are probably too drowsy to drive safely. (references) | ||
Political Economy | China | The yawning disparities between urban and rural incomes, a large "floating population" of itinerant workers, and official corruption are chief potential threats to stability. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Yawning" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 67.48% of the time. "Yawning" is used about 163 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 67.48% | 110 | 30,952 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 27.61% | 45 | 50,900 |
| Noun (singular) | 3.07% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.84% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 163 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "yawning": agapepredicate gaping yawning ♦ yawning gulf. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
yawning | 179 |
excessive yawning | 31 |
contagious yawning | 8 |
cause yawning | 7 |
contagious why yawning | 5 |
lion yawning | 5 |
dog yawning | 5 |
animal yawning | 3 |
lion yawn yawning | 3 |
yawning picture | 3 |
constant yawning | 3 |
symptom yawning | 3 |
bread yawning | 3 |
frequent yawning | 2 |
tiger yawning | 2 |
chronic yawning | 2 |
gulf yawning | 2 |
child yawning | 2 |
stop yawning | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "yawning"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | تثاؤب (yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | "呵 (Yawned). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | gaben (chasma, yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | geeuw (yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | minua haukotuttaa (I feel like yawning). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | mouvement de lacet (yaw motion, yawing), baillement (yawn), béant, béance, bâillement (yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | gähnend (gaping). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | χάσμημα (yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | פעיר" (gaping, opening wide), פ"יק", פ"קת (gaping). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | sbadiglio (gape, yawn), sbadigliando. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 伸 (yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | あくび (unlucky day, yawn), け"し" (beatific vision, dedication, devotion, inspection of a meter, medical examination, physical examination, yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 하' (Yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | mennuighey, jannoo mennuighys, jannoo mennuighid, jannoo mennuigh (yawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | yawningay bocejamento, abertura da boca. (various references) cãscat (absent minded, Agape, ajar, gaping, open mouthed, stupid, yawn). (various references) зевать зевающий. (various references) ineartaich. (various references) koji zjapi, koji zeva. (various references) bostezando. (various references) gäspande. (various references) genişleyen (expanding, expansive, sprawling, widening), esneyen, esneme (bending, flection, flexion, gape, oscitation, spring, stretch, yawn, yield), büyüyen (expanding, growing, sprawling, thriving). (various references) заючий (dehiscent). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "yawning": yawningly. (additional references) | |
| |
"Yawning" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: jawning, Qazwnin, Ya'nina, Yanine, yawine. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "yawning" (pronounced yô"ning) |
| 4 | -ô" n i ng | dawning, fawning. |
| 3 | -n i ng | abandoning, abstaining, adjoining, adjourning, aligning, apportioning, ascertaining, assigning, attaining, auctioning, auditioning, awakening, awning, ballooning, banning, bargaining, battening, beckoning, beginning, bemoaning, binning, blackening, bludgeoning, boning, branning, brightening, brining, broadening, Browning, burdening, burgeoning, burning, campaigning, caning, Canning, captioning, careening, cartooning, cautioning, chaining, championing, chaperoning, cheapening, christening, churning, cleaning, cloning, clowning, coarsening, cocooning, coining, combining, commissioning, complaining, concerning, conditioning, condoning, confining, conning, constraining, containing, convening, Corning, couponing, crooning, crowning, cunning, cushioning, dampening, darkening, deadening, deafening, declining, decommissioning, deepening, defining, demeaning, Denning, designing, detaining, determining, dining, Dinning, discerning, disciplining, disdaining, disheartening, disillusioning, divining, donning, Downing, draining, droning, drowning, Dunning, Durning, earning, enjoining, enlightening, entertaining, envisioning, evening, examining, explaining, fanning, fashioning, fastening, fattening, feigning, fining, finning, flattening, freshening, frightening, frowning, functioning, gaining, gardening, ginning, glistening, governing, greening, grinning, groaning, gunning, happening, hardening, hastening, headlining, heartening, heightening, honing, Horning, housecleaning, imagining, imprisoning, impugning, inning, intertwining, intervening, intoning, ironing, jawboning, jettisoning, joining, Kenning, leaning, learning, leavening, lengthening, lessening, lightening, lightning, likening, lining, listening, loaning, loosening, machining, maddening, maintaining, malfunctioning, Manning, margining, meaning, mentioning, midmorning, mining, moaning, morning, motioning, mourning, obtaining, opening, opining, ordaining, orphaning, outlining, overrunning, overtraining, overturning, owning, panning, pardoning, partitioning, penning, pertaining, petitioning, phoning, pining, pinning, planning, poisoning, positioning, postponing, preening, preplanning, provisioning, pruning, quarantining, questioning, quickening, raining, rationing, realigning, reasoning, reassigning, reawakening, reckoning, reclining, reconditioning, redefining, redesigning, redlining, reexamining, refining, refraining, regaining, reigning, reining, rejoining, relearning, remaining, reopening, repositioning, rerunning, resigning, restraining, retaining, retraining, returning, rezoning, ripening, ruining, running, saddening, sanctioning, scanning, screening, seasoning, sectioning, sharpening, shining, shortening, shunning, sickening, signing, sinning, siphoning, slackening, softening, spanning, spawning, spinning, spurning, staining, stationing, stiffening, stoning, straightening, straining, streamlining, strengthening, stunning, summoning, sunning, sustaining, sweetening, swooning, tanning, telephoning, thickening, thinning, threatening, tightening, toning, toughening, training, tuning, turning, twining, underlining, undermining, underpinning, unquestioning, unreasoning, vacationing, Vining, waning, warning, weakening, weaning, whining, whitening, widening, wining, winning, worsening, yearning, zoning. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-g-i-n-n-w-y" | |
-1 letter: awning, waning, yawing. | |
-2 letters: awing, ginny, gnawn, wigan, wingy. | |
-3 letters: agin, awny, ayin, gain, gnaw, wain, wany, wing, winy, wynn, yagi, yang, yawn. | |
-4 letters: ain, ani, any, awn, gan, gay, gin, inn, nag, nan, naw, nay, wag, wan, way, wig, win, wyn, yaw, yin. | |
-5 letters: ag, ai, an, aw, ay, in, na, ya. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-g-i-n-n-w-y" | |
+2 letters: fawningly, warningly, yawningly. | |
+4 letters: downplaying. | |
+5 letters: unwaveringly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
