yawn

/jɔn/

/jɔn/

Other forms: yawning; yawned; yawns

The reflex that makes you open your mouth wide, inhale, and then exhale is called a yawn. Even seeing photos of other people's yawns (or reading the word yawn) can make you yawn.

We yawn when we're very bored or tired, or when our bodies need an influx of oxygen. Scientists aren't completely in agreement about all the reasons why we yawn, but the "contagious yawn" happens across all human societies and even in non-human animals like chimpanzees and dogs. Things can also yawn in a figurative way, when they're open wide. Yawn comes from gionian in Old English, "open the mouth wide."

Definitions of yawn

1. noun

   an involuntary intake of breath through a wide open mouth; usually triggered by fatigue or boredom
   “he could not suppress a yawn”

   synonyms: oscitance, oscitancy, yawning

   types:

   pandiculation

   yawning and stretching (as when first waking up)

   type of:

   inborn reflex, innate reflex, instinctive reflex, physiological reaction, reflex, reflex action, reflex response, unconditioned reflex

   an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus
2. verb

   utter a yawn, as from lack of oxygen or when one is tired
   “The child yawned during the long performance”

   type of:

   breathe, respire, suspire, take a breath

   draw air into, and expel out of, the lungs
3. verb

   be wide open
   synonyms: gape, yaw

   type of:

   be

   have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)