yen

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• /jɛn/
  Play
• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play
• rhymes with -ɛn
  Play
• CMU ARPABET: Y EH1 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  Play

From Mandarin 燕 (Yān), reinforced by Wade-Giles romanization: Yen1.

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.

Origin uncertain, but probably from Cantonese 癮 /瘾 (jan5, “craving”) originally in reference to opium addiction, 煙癮 /烟瘾 (jin1 jan5) or 菸癮 /烟瘾 (jin1 jan5): 煙 /烟 (jin1), 菸 /烟 (jin1, “smoke, specifically opium”). Compare the later yen (“opium”) and yen-yen.

From Mandarin 煙 /烟 (yān), 菸 /烟 (yān), or Cantonese 煙 /烟 (jin1), 菸 /烟 (jin1, “smoke, specifically opium”). Compare the earlier yen (“strong desire”) and later yen-yen.

99 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Arabic: يَن (yan) — unit of Japanese currency
• Armenian: յեն (yen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Azerbaijani: iena — unit of Japanese currency
• Belarusian: іе́на (ijéna) — unit of Japanese currency
• Bulgarian: йе́на (jéna) — unit of Japanese currency
• Burmese: ယန်းငွေ (yan:ngwe) — unit of Japanese currency
• Catalan: ien — unit of Japanese currency
• Chinese Cantonese: 日元 (jat6 jyun4) — unit of Japanese currency
• Chinese Cantonese: 日圓 /日圆 (jat6 jyun4) — unit of Japanese currency
• Chinese: 日圓 /日圆 (ji̍t-ôan) — unit of Japanese currency
• Chinese Mandarin: 日元 (rìyuán) — unit of Japanese currency
• Chinese Mandarin: 日圓 /日圆 (rìyuán) — unit of Japanese currency
• Chinese Mandarin: 老日 (lǎorì) — unit of Japanese currency
• Czech: jen — unit of Japanese currency
• Dutch: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Esperanto: eno — unit of Japanese currency
• Esperanto: jeno — unit of Japanese currency
• Estonian: jeen — unit of Japanese currency
• Faroese: jennur — unit of Japanese currency
• Finnish: jeni — unit of Japanese currency
• French: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Galician: ien — unit of Japanese currency
• Georgian: იენა (iena) — unit of Japanese currency
• German: Yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Greek: γιεν (gien) — unit of Japanese currency
• Hindi: येन (yen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Hungarian: jen — unit of Japanese currency
• Icelandic: jen — unit of Japanese currency
• Indonesian: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Irish: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Italian: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Japanese: 円 (en) — unit of Japanese currency
• Japanese: 圓 (en) — unit of Japanese currency
• Kazakh: иен (ien) — unit of Japanese currency
• Korean: 엔 (en) — unit of Japanese currency
• Kyrgyz: иен (iyen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Lao: ເຢນ (yēn) — unit of Japanese currency
• Latin: ienum — unit of Japanese currency
• Latvian: jena — unit of Japanese currency
• Lithuanian: jena — unit of Japanese currency
• Macedonian: јен (jen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Malay: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Māori: iene — unit of Japanese currency
• Marathi: येन (yen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Mongolian: иен (ijen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Occitan: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Persian: ین (yen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Polish: jen — unit of Japanese currency
• Portuguese: iene — unit of Japanese currency
• Romanian: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Russian: ие́на (ijéna) — unit of Japanese currency
• Samogitian: jena — unit of Japanese currency
• Scottish Gaelic: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Serbo-Croatian: јен — unit of Japanese currency
• Serbo-Croatian: jen — unit of Japanese currency
• Spanish: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Swedish: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Tagalog: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Tajik: йен (yen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Thai: เยน (yeen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Turkish: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Ukrainian: є́на (jéna) — unit of Japanese currency
• Uzbek: yena — unit of Japanese currency
• Vietnamese: yên — unit of Japanese currency
• Waray-Waray: yen — unit of Japanese currency
• Yiddish: יען (yen) — unit of Japanese currency
• Chinese Mandarin: 日圓 /日圆 (rìyuán) — coin or note of one yen
• Chinese Mandarin: 日元 (rìyuán) — coin or note of one yen
• Chinese Mandarin: 老日 (lǎorì) — coin or note of one yen
• Czech: jen — coin or note of one yen
• Dutch: yen — coin or note of one yen
• Finnish: jeni — coin or note of one yen
• German: Yen — coin or note of one yen
• Hungarian: jen — coin or note of one yen
• Japanese: 円 (en) — coin or note of one yen
• Korean: 엔 (en) — coin or note of one yen
• Malay: yen — coin or note of one yen
• Marathi: येन (yen) — coin or note of one yen
• Russian: ие́на (ijéna) — coin or note of one yen
• Scottish Gaelic: yen — coin or note of one yen
• Bulgarian: копнеж (kopnež) — strong desire
• Bulgarian: жадуване (žaduvane) — strong desire
• Dutch: verlangen — strong desire
• Dutch: hartstocht — strong desire
• Estonian: iha — strong desire
• Estonian: kihk — strong desire
• Māori: matenui — strong desire
• Māori: tōrere — strong desire
• Plautdietsch: Janka — strong desire
• Spanish: deseo — strong desire
• Spanish: ganas — strong desire
• Bulgarian: жадувам (žaduvam) — have strong desire for
• Bulgarian: копнея (kopneja) — have strong desire for
• Dutch: hartstochtelijk verlangen — have strong desire for
• Dutch: smachten — have strong desire for
• Estonian: ihkama — have strong desire for
• Italian: bramare — have strong desire for
• Italian: desiderare — have strong desire for
• Spanish: desear — have strong desire for