Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Y

Y

(wī)
.
Y, the twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet, at the beginning of a word or syllable, except when a prefix (see Y-), is usually a fricative vocal consonant; as a prefix, and usually in the middle or at the end of a syllable, it is a vowel. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 145, 178-9, 272.
It derives its form from the Latin Y, which is from the Greek Υ, originally the same letter as V. Etymologically, it is most nearly related to u, i, o, and j. g; as in full, fill, AS. fyllan; E. crypt, grotto; young, juvenile; day, AS. dæg. See
U
,
I
, and
J
,
G
.
☞ Y has been called the Pythagorean letter, because the Greek letter Υ was taken to represent the sacred triad, formed by the duad proceeding from the monad; and also because it represents the dividing of the paths of vice and virtue in the development of human life.

Y

(wī)
,
Noun.
;
pl.
Y’s
(wīz)
or
Ys
.
Something shaped like the letter
Y
; a forked piece resembling in form the letter
Y
.
Specifically:
(a)
One of the forked holders for supporting the telescope of a leveling instrument, or the axis of a theodolite; a wye.
(b)
A forked or bifurcated pipe fitting.
(c)
(Railroads)
A portion of track consisting of two diverging tracks connected by a cross track.
Y level
(Surv.)
,
an instrument for measuring differences of level by means of a telescope resting in
Y
's.
–
Y moth
(Zool.)
,
a handsome European noctuid moth
Plusia gamma
) which has a bright, silvery mark, shaped like the letter
Y
, on each of the fore wings. Its larva, which is green with five dorsal white species, feeds on the cabbage, turnip, bean, etc. Called also
gamma moth
, and
silver Y
.

Y

(ī)
,
p
ron.
I.
[Obs.]
King Horn.
Wyclif.

Webster 1828 Edition

Y

Y

, the twenty fifth letter of the English Alphabet, is taken from the Greed. At the beginning of words, it is called an articulation or consonant, and with some propriety perhaps, as it brings the root of the tongue in close contact with the lower part of the palate, and nearly in the position to which the close g brings it. Hence it has happened that in a great number of words, g has been changed into y, as the Sax. Gear, into year; geornian, into yearn; gyllan, into yell; gealew, into yellow.
In the middle and at the end of words, y is precisely the same as I. It is sounded as I long, when accented, as in defy, rely; and as I short, when unaccented, as in vanity, glory, synonymous. This latter sound is a vowel. At the beginning of words, y answers to the German and Dutch J.

Y

, as a numeral, stands for 150, and with a dash over it, for 150,000.

Definition 2024

Y

Y


Y U+0059, Y
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y
← X
[U+0058] 		Basic Latin Z →
[U+005A]
See also: y, Ɏ, ¥, and Appendix:Variations of "y"

Translingual

Letter

Y upper case (lower case y)

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

See also

Symbol

Y

  1. (chemistry) Symbol for yttrium
  2. (metrology) Symbol for prefix yotta-
  3. (genetics) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for any pyrimidine
  4. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for tyrosine
  5. (travel, aviation) Symbol for an unrestricted economy air fare.
  6. (mathematics, computer science) A Fixed-point combinator; especially Haskell Curry's combinator defined as λ f.(λ x.f (x x)) (λx.f (x x))

See also

Other representations of Y:

English

Abbreviation

Y

  1. yes
  2. (the Y) YMCA or YWCA

Letter

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

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

See also

Noun

Y ‎(plural Ys)

  1. A Y-shaped object, such as a railroad fork or a support for a telescope; a wye, a bifurcation.

American Sign Language

Letter

‎(Stokoe Y)

  1. The letter Y

Azeri

Letter

Y upper case (lower case y)

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

See also

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ɛɪ/

Letter

Y ‎(capital, lowercase y)

  1. The twenty-fifth letter of the Dutch alphabet.

See also

  • Previous letter: X
  • Next letter: Z

Finnish

Letter

Y ‎(upper case, lower case y)

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

See also

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʔʏpsilɔn/

Letter

Y ‎(upper case, lower case y)

  1. The twenty-fifth letter of the German alphabet.

German Sign Language

Etymology

Related to the French Sign Language sign for "Y".

Production

This one-handed GSL sign is produced as follows:

  • Posture the dominant hand in the “Y” shape.

Letter

  1. the letter Y

Ido

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /j/

Letter

Y ‎(lower case y)

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

See also

Italian

Pronunciation

  • (name of letter) IPA(key): /ˈip.si.lon/, /iˈɡrɛ.ko/, /iˈɡrɛ.ka/
  • (phonetic realization) IPA(key): [j], [i] (varies depending on the loanword)

Letter

Y m, f ‎(invariable, lower case y)

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

Usage notes

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

See also

Malay

Pronunciation

  • (Name of letter) IPA(key): [wai̯]
  • (Phoneme) IPA(key): [j]

Letter

Y

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

See also

Portuguese

Letter

Y ‎(upper case, lower case y)

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

See also

Noun

Y m (plural Ys)

  1. fork (area where something forks)

Synonyms

Saanich

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /j/, /jʼ/

Letter

Y

  1. The thirty-seventh letter of the Saanich alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Somali

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /ʝ/, /ɪ̯/, /i̯/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ʝæ/

Letter

Y upper case (lower case y)

  1. The twenty-second letter of the Somali alphabet, called ya and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

  1. The twenty-second letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is preceded by H and followed by A.

See also

Spanish

Letter

Y ‎(upper case, lower case y)

  1. The 26th letter of the Spanish alphabet.

Turkish

Letter

Y ‎(upper case, lower case y)

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

See also

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔi˧˧ z̻aːj˨˩/, /ʔi˧˧ ɣəːɰ˨˩ zɛʔt̚˧ˀ˦]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɪj˧˧ jaːj˧˧/, /ʔɪj˧˧ ɣəːɰ˧˧ ʐɛʔt̚˦˥]
  • (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [ʔɪj˧˥ jaːj˨˩/, /ʔɪj˧˥ ɣəːɰ˨˩ ʐɛʔk̚˦ˀ˥]
  • Phonetic: i dài, i gờ rét

Letter

Y ‎(upper case, lower case y)

  1. The twenty-ninth letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, called i dài or i gờ-rét and written in the Latin script.

See also

y

y


y U+0079, y
LATIN SMALL LETTER Y
← x
[U+0078] 		Basic Latin z →
[U+007A]
See also: y', у, ყ, and Appendix:Variations of "y"

Translingual

Letter

y lower case (upper case Y)

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

See also

Pronunciation

Symbol

y

  1. (metrology) Symbol for the prefix yocto-.
  2. (IPA) close front rounded vowel
  3. Denoting an item that is twenty-fifth in a list.

See also

Other representations of Y:

English

Letter

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

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

Usage notes

  • The name of this letter is spelled wy or wye

See also

Abbreviation

y

  1. Abbreviation of year.
    • 2003, Howard Tanner, Sonia Jones, Becoming a Successful Teacher of Mathematics
      Consider the following questions selected from the tests and estimate the proportion of Y8 pupils you would expect to answer correctly.
  2. (Britain, television) Abbreviation of youth., usually followed by an age appropriate for the content so marked.
    Y7
  3. (computing) Abbreviation of yes.
  4. (slang, text messaging, Internet) Abbreviation of why.

Derived terms

See also

Aragonese

Etymology

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

Conjunction

y

  1. and

Asturian

Etymology

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

Conjunction

y

  1. and

Pronoun

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

  1. Pronoun for the third-person singular indirect object.
    da-y pan‎
    give him/her bread

Usage notes

  • Usually seen as -y

Azeri

Letter

y lower case (upper case Y)

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

See also

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ɛɪ/

Letter

y ‎(lower case, upper case Y)

  1. 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/).

See also

  • Previous letter: x
  • Next letter: z

Fala

Conjunction

y

  1. Alternative form of i

Faroese

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /iː/
  • Homophone: i

Letter

y ‎(upper case Y)

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

See also

French

Etymology 1

French 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): /iɡʁɛk/

Letter

y

  1. 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.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

y ‎(adverbial)

  1. there (at a place)
    Il est dans la maison. Il y est.‎ ― He is in the house. He is there.
  2. there, thither (to there)
    Nous allons au Mexique. Nous y allons.‎ ― We are going to Mexico. We are going there.
  3. Used as a pronoun to replace à followed by an indirect object. See Appendix:French verbs followed by à for verbs which use this structure.
Related terms

Etymology 3

Eye-dialect spelling of il.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /i/

Pronoun

y

  1. (Quebec, France, colloquial) He: Alternative form of il
  2. (Quebec, France, colloquial) They: Alternative form of ils
  3. (Quebec, colloquial) They: Alternative form of elles

German

Pronunciation

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

Letter

y n ‎(genitive y or y's, plural y or y's)

  1. the letter y

Guaraní

Noun

y

  1. water

Ido

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /j/

Letter

y ‎(upper case Y)

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

See also

Italian

Noun

y m, f ‎(invariable)

  1. See under Y

Kamayurá

Noun

y

  1. Alternative form of 'ɨ

References

  • Languages of the Amazon (2012, ISBN 0199593566)

Ladin

Conjunction

y

  1. and

Latin

Pronunciation

Noun

ȳ ‎(indeclinable)

  1. A name of the letter Y.

Synonyms

Coordinate terms

References

Malay

Letter

y ‎(lower case, upper case Y)

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

See also

Mandinka

Pronoun

y

  1. they, them (personal pronoun)

See also

Manx

Article

y

  1. Alternative form of yn

Mbyá Guaraní

Noun

y

  1. water

References

Middle English

Pronoun

y

  1. I

Middle French

Adverb

y

  1. there (in a given place)
    • 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 12:
      Or me dictes fist Lancelot, des lettres qui illec sont escriptes, savez vous qui les y fist mettre
      Now tell me, said Lancelot, about these letters that are written here, do you know who put them here?

Norwegian

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /y̫ː/
  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /y̫ː/, /y̫/

Letter

y

  1. 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)/.

Old Tupi

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʔɨ/

Noun

y

  1. water
  2. river

References

Papiamentu

Conjunction

y

  1. and

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Letter

y ‎(lower case, upper case Y)

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

See also

Quechua

Adverb

y

  1. really, truly

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /i/
  • (letter name) IPA(key): /ʝe/

Letter

y ‎(lower case, upper case Y)

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

See also

Etymology 2

From Old Spanish é or e, from Latin et.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • (preconsonantal) IPA(key): /i/
  • (prevocalic) IPA(key): /ʝ/
  • Rhymes: -i

Conjunction

y

  1. and
    • 1605, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote de la Mancha1, Chapter I:
      Es, pues, de saber que este sobredicho hidalgo, los ratos que estaba ocioso —que eran los más del año—, se daba a leer libros de caballerías, con tanta afición y gusto, que olvidó casi de todo punto el ejercicio de la caza y aun la administración de su hacienda; y llegó a tanto su curiosidad y desatino en esto , que vendió muchas hanegas de tierra de sembradura para comprar libros de caballerías en que leer, y, así, llevó a su casa todos cuantos pudo haber dellos.‎
      You must know, then, that the above-named gentleman whenever he was at leisure (which was mostly all the year round) gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardour and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the pursuit of his field-sports, and even the management of his property; and to such a pitch did his eagerness and infatuation go that he sold many an acre of tillageland to buy books of chivalry to read, and brought home as many of them as he could get.
  2. (in names of number) and
    setenta y seis‎
    seventy-six
  3. (in arithmetic) plus, and
    uno y uno son dos‎
    one plus one is two
  4. (informal) well
    ¡Y por supuesto!‎
    Well, of course!

Usage notes

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

Turkish

Letter

y ‎(lower case, upper case Y)

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

See also

Turkmen

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /ɯ/, /ɯː/

Letter

y ‎(upper case Y)

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

See also

Vietnamese

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 伊

Pronunciation

Noun

y ‎(伊)

  1. (formal) he; him (usually refers to a criminal)
  2. (archaic, literary) he; him; she; her

Wayampi

Noun

y

  1. 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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ə/

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

  • 'r (used after vowels)
  • yr (used before vowels)

Article

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

  1. the
    y bachgen‎ ― the boy
    y ferch‎ ― the girl
    y llong‎ ― the ship
    y bechgyn‎ ― the boys
    y merched‎ ― the girls

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

  • yr (used before vowels)

Particle

y

  1. (literary) that (preverbal particle used to mark a subordinate clause)
    Wyt ti'n meddwl y gall hi ddod?‎
    Do you think that she can come?
    Mae hi'n gwybod y byddet ti'n gwrando arni hi.‎
    She knows that you would listen to her.
  2. (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
  3. (literary) preverbal particle used to mark an affirmative verb in a main clause
    • 1620, William Morgan, Y Bibl Cyssegr-lan, Genesis 1:1
      Yn y dechreuad y creodd Duw y nefoedd a’r ddaear.‎
      In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Usage notes
  • y is almost always omitted in the colloquial language.
  • 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

Pronunciation

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