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say it: YAW-ning
yawning is an adjective and noun meaning "gaping open as if threatening to engulf someone or something". It carries 4 recorded senses.
gaping open as if threatening to engulf someone or something
“the yawning mine shaft”
“a yawning abyss”
an involuntary intake of breath through a wide open mouth; usually triggered by fatigue or boredom
“he could not suppress a yawn”
“the yawning in the audience told him it was time to stop”
“he apologized for his oscitancy”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for yawning come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.