y - synonyms, antonyms, definitions

y

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of y in English

English Online Dictionary. What means y‎? What does y mean?

Translingual

Letter

y (upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

Pronunciation

Symbol

(metrology) Symbol for the prefix yocto-.
(IPA) a close front rounded vowel: the German ü-sound.
(superscript ⟨ʸ⟩) [y]-coloring, a [y] on- or off-glide (diphthong), or a weak, fleeting, epenthetic or echo [y].
(NAPA) the English y-sound, IPA [j].
(superscript ⟨ʸ⟩) palatalization, IPA [ʲ].
Denoting an item that is twenty-fifth in a list.

Gallery

Letter styles

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪ/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /i/, /ɪ/, /aɪ/, /ə/, /j/
(letter name): Rhymes: -aɪ
Homophones: why, Wye, wye

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y, plural ys or y's)

The twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet, called wy or wye and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Abbreviations.

(stenoscript) the sound sequence /ɔɪ̯/.
(stenoscript) Abbreviation of why.
(stenoscript) the prefix -ry or -rry.

Noun

Abbreviation of year.
(UK, television) Abbreviation of youth, usually followed by an age appropriate for the content so marked.
Y7
(computing) Abbreviation of yes.

Derived terms

Adverb

y (not comparable)

(slang, text messaging, Internet slang, stenoscript) Abbreviation of why.

Aragonese

Etymology

From Latin et, from Proto-Indo-European *éti.

Conjunction

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin et, from Proto-Indo-European *éti.

Conjunction

Pronoun

y (y (or -y), plural ys/yos or -ys/-yos)

Pronoun for the third-person singular indirect object.

Usage notes

Usually seen as -y

Azerbaijani

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /j/

Letter

y lower case (upper case Y)

The thirty-first letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Basque

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i ɡreko/, [i ɣ̞re̞.ko̞]

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Basque alphabet, called i greko and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

Catalan

Conjunction

Obsolete form of i (“and”).

Cornish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /iː/

Pronoun

(Standard Cornish) they (third person plural pronoun)
(Standard Cornish, Standard Written Form) his

Dutch

Alternative forms

ij (in some words)

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ɛɪ/, /iˈɡrɛk/, /ˌɣrik.sə ˈɛɪ/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Dutch alphabet.

Usage notes

In certain dialects the letter is pronounced similar to IPA: /ji:/. In these dialects, they will actually write "y" such as in "jy" (IPA: /ji:/) instead of modern standard Dutch jij (IPA: /jɛɪ/).

Fala

Conjunction

Alternative form of i

Faroese

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /iː/
Homophone: i

Letter

y (upper case Y)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Faroese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Finnish

Etymology

The Finnish orthography using the Latin script was based on Swedish, German and Latin. No earlier script is known. See the Wikipedia article on Finnish for more information, and y for development of the glyph itself. In particular, the use of ⟨y⟩ for /y/ follows the Swedish orthography, which in turn follows Latin.

Pronunciation

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fourth letter of the Finnish alphabet, called yy and written in the Latin script.

French

Etymology 1

From i grec (“Greek i”), referring to the letter upsilon (Υ), originally borrowed from the Greek alphabet, as opposed to "Latin i" (I).

Pronunciation

(letter name) IPA^(key): /i.ɡʁɛk/

Letter

a letter in the French alphabet, after x and before z

Etymology 2

10th century; from Old French i, from Latin hīc (“here”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-ḱe (“this, here”)), with meaning influenced by Old French iv (“there, thither”), itself from Latin ibī. Derivation from the latter poses difficulty from a phonetic standpoint. Compare Catalan hi.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i/
Homophones: hie, hies, hient, i

Pronoun

y (adverbial)

there (at a place)
there, thither (to there)
Used as a pronoun to replace an adverbial phrase starting with à.
1. With verbs: see Appendix:French verbs followed by à for verbs which use this structure.
2. (archaic) With adjectives. Only used with a handful of adjectives (the most common combination being y compris, which is a special case), mainly in legal terminology.
  personnes y nommées ― Persons named there(in)
  
  procédures y afférentes ― Related procedures
  
  documents y relatifs ― Related documents
  
  eaux y affluentes ― Tributary waters

Derived terms

y avoir
y compris

Related terms

Etymology 3

Eye dialect spelling or contraction of il and ils.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i/

Pronoun

(Quebec, France, colloquial) he: alternative form of il
(Quebec, France, colloquial) they: alternative form of ils
(Quebec, colloquial) they: alternative form of elles

Fula

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the Fula alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Common to all varieties of Fula (Fulfulde / Pulaar / Pular).

German

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /yː/, /y/, /ʏ/, /i/, /ɪ/, /j/
(letter name) IPA^(key): /ˈʏpsilɔn/

Letter

y n (strong, genitive y, plural y)

the letter y

Guaraní

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɨ/

Noun

water

Derived terms

ysyry (“river”)

Haitian Creole

Etymology

Contraction of yo.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/

Pronoun

Contraction of yo.

Hungarian

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): [ˈi]
(letter name): IPA^(key): [ˈipsilon]

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the extended Hungarian alphabet, called ipszilon and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

As shown in the alphabet below, this letter normally occurs in Hungarian words only as part of four digraphs: gy, ly, ny, and ty (with their long counterparts: ggy, lly, nny, tty). Aside from them, the terms containing y defined in an extensive Hungarian monolingual dictionary are baby-doll, baby-sitter, body (“bodice”), body-building / bodyzik / bodyzó, boy, brandy, citoyen, country/countryzene, cowboy/cowboyfilm/cowboykalap, curry, disc-jockey, doyen, dry, dyn, fair play, háryjános/háryjánoskodik, intercity, joystick, play back, playboy, royalista, sherry, spray, whisky, yard, yperit, yuppie, złoty and the letter itself. Additionally, a newer and more comprehensive but as yet incomplete dictionary contains bicsérdysta, byte, copyright, and cowboycsizma. (The forms dandy, gentry, happy end (“happy ending”), jersey, maya, nylon, and yen are also mentioned as alternative forms in the former volume, but their current standard spelling is dendi, dzsentri, dzsörzé, hepiend, jen, maja, and nejlon.)

Proper names written with y include the country names Guyana, Paraguay, Seychelle-szigetek, and Uruguay and the capital names Conakry, Port Moresby, and Reykjavík. Other names deriving from Latin alphabets are also retained (such as English Calgary, Hollywood, Kentucky, Montgomery, New Jersey, New York, Sydney, Wyoming etc., German Bayreuth, Speyer, Steyr, French Lyon, Mayotte, Nancy, Vichy, and Polish Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Przemyśl). Otherwise, this letter is usually transcribed in country and city names, for example Jemen (“Yemen”), Malajzia (“Malaysia”), Nepjida (“Naypyidaw”), and Rijád (“Riyadh”).

Declension

Derived terms

References

Ido

Pronunciation

(context pronunciation) IPA^(key): /j/
(letter name) IPA^(key): /je/

Letter

y (upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Indonesian

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /je/
(phoneme) IPA^(key): /j/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Indonesian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Italian

Letter

y f or m (invariable, lower case, upper case Y)

the twenty-fifth letter of the Latin alphabet, called ipsilon, i greco or i greca in Italian

Usage notes

The letter Y is not considered part of the Italian alphabet. It is found mainly in loanwords.

Kabuverdianu

Etymology

From Spanish y and Portuguese e .

Conjunction

References

Gonçalves, Manuel (2015) Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN

Kamayurá

Noun

Alternative form of 'ɨ

References

Languages of the Amazon (2012, →ISBN

Kashubian

Etymology

The Kashubian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Kashubian alphabet article on Wikipedia for more, and y for development of the glyph itself.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirty-first letter of the Kashubian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Khumi Chin

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʔɘ˥/

Particle

References

K. E. Herr (2011) The phonological interpretation of minor syllables, applied to Lemi Chin‎^[2], Payap University, page 47

Ladin

Conjunction

Latgalian

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /ɨ/

Letter

y (upper case Y)

The fourteenth letter of the Latgalian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Latin

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /yː/, [yː]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /i/, [iː]

Noun

ȳ f (indeclinable)

A name of the letter Y.

Synonyms

(name of the letter Y): ī graeca, ȳpsīlon

Coordinate terms

(Latin-script letter names) littera; ā, bē, cē, dē, ē, ef, gē, hā / *acca, ī, kā, el, em, en, ō, pē, kū, er, es, tē, ū, ix / īx / ex, ȳ / ī graeca / ȳpsīlon, zēta

References

y in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Latin Grammar (3rd ed., 1895), page 1
The Latin names for the letters… For Y the sound was used, for Z the Greek name (zēta).

Lithuanian

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /iː/

Letter

y (upper case Y)

The fifteenth letter of the Lithuanian alphabet, called i ilgoji and written in the Latin script.

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɨ/

Letter

y (upper case Y)

The thirty-first letter of the Lower Sorbian alphabet, called y and written in the Latin script.
The name of the Latin-script letter y/Y.

Malay

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Mandinka

Pronoun

they, them (personal pronoun)

Manx

Article

Alternative form of yn

Mbyá Guaraní

Noun

water

References

Léxico Guaraní, dialeto Mbyá : versão para fins acadêmicos (1998)

Middle English

Etymology 1

Pronoun

Alternative form of I

Etymology 2

Preposition

Alternative form of in (“in”)

Middle French

Adverb

there (in a given place)

Navajo

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/, /ɣ/

Letter

y (upper case Y)

A letter of the Navajo alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

The letter ⟨y⟩ is used for the phoneme /j/, but also for /ɣ/ before a front vowel, where that is pronounced [ʝ].

Norwegian

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /yː/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /yː/, /y/

Letter

The twenty-fifth letter of the Norwegian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Perhaps the most troublesome sound in Norwegian. Even some native speakers tend to merge it into /i(ː)/.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Old Norse ýr, from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz. Akin to English yew.

Noun

y m (definite singular yen, indefinite plural yar, definite plural yane)

(obsolete) yew
Synonym: barlind

Related terms

Ivar m
Iveland
Ivesdal

Etymology 2

From Old Norse úa, influenced by kry.

Verb

y (present tense yr, past tense ydde, past participle ytt/ydd, passive infinitive yast, present participle yande, imperative y)

to crawl (about small animals)

References

“y” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Nupe

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /j/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Nupe alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Old Tupi

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *tɨ, from Proto-Tupian *tɨ (“natural water”).

Cognate with Sateré-Mawé hɨ (“river”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɨ/
Rhymes: -ɨ
Hyphenation: y

Noun

y (IIb class pluriform, possessable, absolute ty, R1 ry, R2 ty)

liquid
humidity
juice, while it's still inside the fruit

Derived terms

Noun

y (unpossessable)

river
Synonym: 'y

Adjective

y (IIb class pluriform, R1 ry, R2 ty)

humid

References

Papiamentu

Alternative forms

i (alternative spelling)

Etymology

From Spanish y and Portuguese e and Kabuverdianu i.

Conjunction

Polish

Etymology

The Polish orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the history of Polish orthography article on Wikipedia for more, and y for development of the glyph itself.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɨ/

Letter

y (upper case Y, lower case)

The twenty-ninth letter of the Polish alphabet, called y or igrek and written in the Latin script.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Letter name: (ípsilon)

Letter name: (i grego)

Phoneme:

IPA^(key): /i/, /j/ (loanwords)

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Quechua

Adverb

really, truly

Romanian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/, /i/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirtieth letter of the Romanian alphabet, called igrec or i grec and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

Silesian

Etymology

The Silesian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Silesian language article on Wikipedia for more, and y for development of the glyph itself.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirty-first letter of the Silesian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Spanish

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (phoneme) /ʝ/, /i/

- Rhymes: -e
/i/ in the conjunction (see below) and in word-final diphthongs (e.g. hoy, rey); otherwise /ʝ/.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Spanish alphabet, called ye or i griega and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Spanish è or e, from Latin et.

Alternative forms

e
i (obsolete)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (preconsonantal) /i/ [i]
- Rhymes: -i
- Syllabification: y
IPA^(key): (prevocalic) [i̯]
- Rhymes:

Conjunction

and
- 1605, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote de la Mancha¹, Chapter I:
(in names of number) and
setenta y seis ― seventy-six
(in arithmetic) plus, and
uno y uno son dos ― one plus one is two
(informal) well
¡Y por supuesto! ― Well, of course!
(informal) what about, how about, where is/are the
Pero, ¿y el concierto? ¿Ya no vamos? ― But what about the concert? Are we not going anymore?

¿Y la niña? ¿Está a salvo? ― How about the girl? Is she safe?

¿Y los archivos? Debo echarles un vistazo. ― Where are the files? I should take a look at them.

Usage notes

Before words that begin with the /i/ sound, the form e is used instead.

Derived terms

Tagalog

Etymology 1

From Spanish y. Each pronunciation has a different source:

Filipino alphabet pronunciation is influenced by English y.
Abakada alphabet pronunciation is influenced by Baybayin character ᜌ (ya).
Abecedario pronunciation is from Spanish y.

Pronunciation

Hyphenation: y
(letter name, Filipino alphabet): IPA^(key): /waj/, [waɪ̯]
(letter name, Abakada alphabet): IPA^(key): /ja/, [jɐ]
(letter name, Abecedario): IPA^(key): /ˈje/, [ˈjɛ]
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /j/, [j]
(phoneme, used as a vowel): IPA^(key): /i/, [ɪ]
Rhymes: -aj, -a, -e

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y, Baybayin spelling ᜏᜌ᜔)

The twenty-seventh letter of the Tagalog alphabet (Filipino alphabet), called way and written in the Latin script.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y, Baybayin spelling ᜌ)

The twentieth letter of the Tagalog alphabet (Abakada alphabet), called ya and written in the Latin script.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y, Baybayin spelling ᜌᜒ)

(historical) The twenty-seventh letter of the Tagalog alphabet (Abecedario), called ye and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish y.

Pronunciation

Hyphenation: y
IPA^(key): /ˈʔi/, [ˈʔi]

Conjunction

y (Baybayin spelling ᜁ)

(archaic) and

Tày

Pronunciation

(Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [ʔi˧˧]
(Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [ʔi˦˥]

Verb

to imitate, to mimic

Preposition

along
y te hết ― do like he/she does (literally do along him/her)
according to
y cằm po̱ me̱ ― according to the parents' words

References

Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎^[3][4] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên

Turkish

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Turkish alphabet, called ye and written in the Latin script.

Turkmen

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /ɯ/, /ɯː/

Letter

y (upper case Y)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Turkmen alphabet, called y and written in the Latin script.

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔi˧˧]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɪj˧˧]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔɪj˧˧]

Etymology 1

Sino-Vietnamese word from 伊.

Pronoun

(archaic, literary) he; him; she; her
(derogatory) he, him

Etymology 2

Sino-Vietnamese word from 依.

Adverb

(informal) exactly; precisely (like)
y như ― exactly like/as

y như thật ― so realistic (literally, “exactly like real life”)

y chang ― very much like

Derived terms

Etymology 3

Sino-Vietnamese word from 醫.

Noun

(medicine) medicine; physician

Derived terms

Wayampi

Noun

Alternative form of ɨɨ (“water”)
ay'ú. ― I drink water.

References

Handbook of Amazonian Languages, volume 4 (1998), edited by Desmond C. Derbyshire, Geoffrey K. Pullum

Welsh

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

(with grave accent to indicate otherwise unpredictable short vowel /ə/): ỳ
(with acute accent to indicate unusually stressed short vowel): ý
(with circumflex to indicate otherwise unpredictable or unusually stressed long vowel): ŷ
(with diaeresis to indicate disyllabicity): ÿ

Pronunciation

(standard) IPA^(key): /ə/
- (informal) IPA^(key): /əː/
Rhymes: -ə

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-ninth letter of the Welsh alphabet, called y and written in the Latin script. It is preceded by w.

Mutation

y cannot be mutated but, being a vowel, does take h-prothesis, for example with the word ysgol (“school; ladder”):

Derived terms

Digraph sequences: yw

Noun

y f (plural yau)

The name of the Latin-script letter Y.

Mutation

Etymology 2

From Middle Welsh y, yr, from Old Welsh ir, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *sindos.

Alternative forms

'r (used after vowels)
yr (used before vowels and h)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ə/
Rhymes: -ə

Article

y (definite) (triggers soft mutation of a feminine singular noun, except ll and rh remain unmutated)

the
y bachgen m ― the boy

y ferch f ― the girl

y llong f ― the ship

y bechgyn pl ― the boys

y merched pl ― the girls

Etymology 3

Merger of two formerly distinct particles, ydd and yd.

(1) from earlier ydd, from Middle Welsh yð, from Proto-Celtic *ide- (compare Breton e, ez, Cornish y, yth, Old Irish id), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-dʰei- (compare Latin ibi (“here”), Avestan 𐬌𐬛𐬁‎ (idā, “here, in the same way”), and Sanskrit इह (ihá, “here”)).
(2) from earlier yd, from Middle Welsh yt, from Old Welsh it, from Proto-Celtic *ita- (compare Breton e, ez); akin to Latin ita (“so, thus”), dialectal Lithuanian it (“as”), and Sanskrit íti (“thus, in this manner”).

Alternative forms

yr (used before vowels and h)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ə/
Rhymes: -ə

Particle

(literary) that (preverbal particle used to mark a subordinate clause)
(literary) which, whom (particle used with indirect relative clauses)
y dyn y dysgais ei fab ― the man whose son I taught

y ferch y gwrandewais arni ― the girl to whom I listened
(literary) preverbal particle used to mark an affirmative verb in a main clause

Usage notes

y is almost always omitted in colloquial speech.
y is used to mean 'that' (i.e. mark a subordinate clause) when the subordinate clause begins with an affirmative form of bod not in the present tense, or another affirmative verb in any tense apart from the preterite.

Related terms

a
bod
mai (with fronted element, marked for emphasis)
i
na (negative)

Yoruba

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /j/
(letter name): IPA^(key): /jí/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Yoruba alphabet, called yí and written in the Latin script.

Zulu

Letter

The letter of the alphabet, written in the Latin script.

y

y

Translingual

Letter

See also

Pronunciation

Symbol

Gallery

See also

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

Etymology 2

Noun

Derived terms

Adverb

See also

Aragonese

Etymology

Conjunction

Asturian

Etymology

Conjunction

Pronoun

Usage notes

Azerbaijani

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

Basque

Pronunciation

Letter

Usage notes

See also

Catalan

Conjunction

Cornish

Pronunciation

Pronoun

Dutch

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Letter

Usage notes

See also

Fala

Conjunction

Faroese

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

Finnish

Etymology

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

French

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Letter

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Pronoun

Derived terms

Related terms

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Pronoun

Further reading

Fula

Pronunciation

Letter

Usage notes

See also

German

Pronunciation

Letter

Guaraní