nouns-that-start-with-y

240 Nouns That Start with Y | Huge List with Definitions and Examples

Yeehaw! Yoga, yummy, youth, yoke and yell, all are welcome to this amazing collection of nouns that start with Y. It might not be the yin to your yang, but you will surely find Y words as a fun. Just so the fun doesn’t end, you can explore some of the yummiest nouns beginning with Y in this list.

These nouns that start with Y are great tools to enrich your English vocabulary. Whether you are yearning to visit yonkers or for the yummy taste of a yellow curry, the letter Y is here to help you all the way!

Nouns starting with Y can be yobbish a little bit but are very useful and definitely worth your time! Whether you are on to a scrabble, writing a speech or a short story or just want to build your vocabulary, our perfectly curated list of nouns that start with Y will uplift you to a position of superiority!

Review this full list that contain both positive and negative Y-nouns and see how you can use them in your daily conversation.

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Nouns That Start with Y You Always Use

The most frequently used nouns that start with Y in English are important, fundamental parts of speech like articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. To boost your English skills, glance over this list of such commonly used nouns:

1. Yahoo

  • Definition: a rude, noisy, or violent person
  • Synonyms: barbarian, vulgarian, savage
  • Example: Mike often behaves like an yahoo.

2. Yacht

  • Definition: a medium-sized sailing boat equipped for cruising or racing
  • Synonyms: catboat, sailboat, schooner
  • Example: He spent three days adrift on his yacht.

3. Yard

  • Definition: an open space wholly or partly enclosed (as by buildings or walls)
  • Synonyms: court, courtyard
  • Example: Prisoners are allowed an hour of exercise in the prison’s inner yard.

4. Yardstick

  • Definition: a standard used for comparison
  • Synonyms: standard, guage, scale
  • Example: League tables are not the only yardstick of schools’ performance.

5. Year

  • Definition: the period of 365 days (or 366 days in leap years) starting from the first of January, used for reckoning time in ordinary circumstances
  • Synonyms: twelve months, calendar year
  • Example: She’s had a bad year with the loss of her mother.

6. Yellow

  • Definition: yellow colour or pigment
  • Synonyms: amber, alabaster
  • Example: The bridesmaids were dressed in yellow.

7. Yearbook

  • Definition: an annual publication giving current information and listing events or aspects of the previous year, especially in a particular field
  • Synonyms: annual, catalog, almanac
  • Example: The yearbook also noted a sharp drop in reported cases of sexually transmitted disease.

8. Yogurt

  • Definition: a semi-solid food prepared from milk fermented by added bacteria, often sweetened and flavoured
  • Synonyms: buttermilk, dairy product, curd
  • Example: There’s a yogurt left if you’re still hungry.

Nouns That Start with Y You Usually Use

One of the scariest things about a new language is to learn a huge number of common nouns. Let’s stroll down through a list of few nouns starting with Y you usually use in your daily life:

1. Young

  • Definition: offspring, especially of an animal before or soon after birth
  • Synonyms: offspring, progeny, family
  • Example: Many grebes carry their young on their backs.

2. Youthfulness

  • Definition: the fact of being young
  • Synonyms: juvenility, puberty
  • Example: I wonder at her perennial youthfulness.

3. Yumminess

  • Definition: the quality of being yummy or delicious
  • Synonyms: tastiness, sweatness
  • Example: Serve that food warm for melt-in-the-mouth yumminess.

4. Yell

  • Definition: a loud, sharp cry of pain, surprise, or delight
  • Synonyms: cry, shout, scream
  • Example: Her foot slipped and she gave a yell of fear.

5. Yolk

  • Definition: the yellow internal part of a bird’s egg, which is surrounded by the white, is rich in protein and fat, and nourishes the developing embryo
  • Synonyms: center, egg-yolk, egg-white
  • Example: I like eggs lightly cooked so that the yolk is still runny.

6. Yield

  • Definition: an amount produced of an agricultural or industrial product
  • Synonyms: crop, revenue, output
  • Example: Our yield of wheat increased this year.

7. Yam

  • Definition: the edible starchy tuber of a climbing plant that is widely grown in tropical and subtropical countries
  • Synonyms: sweet potato, batata, camote
  • Example: In a clearing under a big tree, women squat peeling yams.

Nouns That Start with Y You Often Use

Learning and memorizing the commonly used nouns that begin with the letter Y helps English learners, both young and old, to develop their core vocabulary. In the following list, we’ve collected some common English nouns beginning with Y:

1. Yank

  • Definition: a sudden hard pull
  • Synonyms: jerk, pull, jolt
  • Example: He gave the rope a yank.

2. Yardage

  • Definition: a distance or length measured in yards
  • Synonyms: conversion, area, length
  • Example: The caddie was working out yardages from tee to green.

3. Yarn

  • Definition: spun thread used for knitting, weaving, or sewing
  • Synonyms: thread, cotton, whool
  • Example: She still spins the yarn and knits sweaters for her family.

4. Yawl

  • Definition: a two-masted fore-and-aft-rigged sailing boat with the mizzenmast stepped far aft so that the mizzen boom overhangs the stern
  • Synonyms: sailboat, vessel
  • Example: I talked to the captain and expected that he would put out a yawl and pick me up.

5. Yawn

  • Definition: a reflex act of opening one’s mouth wide and inhaling deeply due to tiredness or boredom
  • Synonyms: bore, drag, drip
  • Example: He stretches and stifles a yawn.

6. Yearning

  • Definition: a feeling of intense longing for something
  • Synonyms: longing, pinning, craving
  • Example: He felt a yearning for the mountains.

7. Yeast

  • Definition: a microscopic fungus consisting of single oval cells that reproduce by budding, and capable of converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide
  • Synonyms: fungus, catalyst, fermenter
  • Example: You mix flour, yeast and water to make bread.

Nouns That Start with Y You Sometimes Use

If you want to learn English and converse with other English speakers as quickly as possible, learning these nouns that start with the letter Y will help you to understand the English efficiently and expeditiously. Walk over this list of some nouns you sometimes use:

1. Yelp

  • Definition: a short, sharp cry, especially of pain or alarm
  • Synonyms: squeal, howl, shriek
  • Example: He gave a yelp of pain and pulled his hand away.

2. Yen

  • Definition: a strong wish for something
  • Synonyms: appetite, craving, desire
  • Example: I have a strange yen to take the day off from work.

3. Yesteryear

  • Definition: last year or the recent past, especially as nostalgically recalled
  • Synonyms: past, days gone by, golden era
  • Example: He often mentioned the golden scandals of yesteryear.

4. Yip

  • Definition: a short, sharp cry or yelp, especially of excitement or delight
  • Synonyms: painful cry, howl, scream
  • Example: With a yip of joy, she followed her father into the room, and then she felt everything tickle and her vision blurred.

5. Yodel

  • Definition: a song, melody, or call delivered by yodelling
  • Synonyms: carol, chant, descant
  • Example: He heard a yodel from below.

6. Yoke

  • Definition: a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plough or cart that they are to pull
  • Synonyms: harness, collar, tackle
  • Example: So I borrowed a yoke of oxen and plowed an adjoining field.

Nouns That Start with Y You Occasionally Use

If you are a beginner English learner, then studying these nouns with letter Y you occasionally use will build a strong foundation for you. Let’s stroll down through a list of such nouns and see how you can use them in your daily life:

1. Yore

  • Definition: of a long time ago
  • Synonyms: past, the old days, bygone days
  • Example: In days of yore men lived in caves.

2. Yucca

  • Definition: a large plant with stiff pointed leaves
  • Synonyms: plant, shrub, bush
  • Example: The fruit of the yucca is good to eat.

3. Y-axis

  • Definition: the secondary or vertical axis of a system of coordinates, points along which have a value of zero for all other coordinates
  • Synonyms: coordinate axis
  • Example: You can also change the units on the Y-axis.

4. Yadda

  • Definition: something that is said or written without giving the actual words, because you think that they are boring or unimportant
  • Synonyms: yadda yadda, blah blah blah, that reminds me
  • Example: They had to listen to the usual yada yada about bike safety.

5. Yak

  • Definition: a large domesticated wild ox with shaggy hair, humped shoulders, and large horns, used in Tibet as a pack animal and for its milk, meat, and hide
  • Synonyms: bactrian camel, elephant
  • Example: A wild cat passes near, somebody spots a yak, there is talk of a new plague of wolves.

6. Yakuza

  • Definition: a member of the Yakuza; a Japanese gangster or racketeer
  • Synonyms: lawbreaker, criminal, offender
  • Example: Yakuza gang often employs the homeless as drug pushers or messengers.

7. Yarrow

  • Definition: a Eurasian plant with feathery leaves and heads of small white or pale pink aromatic flowers, which has long been used in herbal medicine
  • Synonyms: milfoil, brooklime, carline
  • Example: Yarrow can be found growing wild in fields and on waste ground.

Nouns That Start with Y You Seldom Use

If you’re inclined to enhance your vocabulary while making it as easy on the ears as possible, then you’re in for an amazing treat as noun words starting with Y are here to help you out. We’ve gathered some rare noun words that start with Y in the below list:

1. Yaw

  • Definition: twisting or oscillation of a moving ship or aircraft about a vertical axis
  • Synonyms: move, turn, bend
  • Example: The airplane’s rudder is used to control yaw.

2. Yearling

  • Definition: an animal (especially a sheep, calf, or foal) that is a year old or that is in its second year
  • Synonyms: young cow, young bull, calf
  • Example: Another day, George rounded up some yearling calves for sale.

3. Yellowfin

  • Definition: a widely distributed, commercially important tuna that has yellow anal and dorsal fins
  • Synonyms: thunnus albacares, yellowfin tuna
  • Example: Atlantic Ocean catches consist mostly of yellowfin.

4. Yeomanry

  • Definition: British volunteer cavalry force created from yeomen in 1761 as a home defense force and reorganized in 1907 as part of the territorial force
  • Synonyms: force, army
  • Example: It is fantastic to maintain 20 regiments of yeomanry with no real role, simply earmarked for home defence.

5. Yerba

  • Definition: a trailing perennial evergreen herb
  • Synonyms: herb, catnip, ganja
  • Example: Yerba mate leaves are rich in substances called polyphenols which have known antioxidant activity.

6. Yeshiva

  • Definition: an Orthodox Jewish college or seminary
  • Synonym: madrassa, Sunday school, academy
  • Example: His parents hoped he would become a rabbi, and sent him to a yeshiva.

7. Yeti

  • Definition: a large hairy creature resembling a human or bear, said to live in the highest part of the Himalayas
  • Synonyms: abominable snowman, bigfeet
  • Example: You once organised an expedition to find the yeti.

8. Yew                                   

  • Definition: an evergreen tree (one that never loses its leaves) with flat leaves like needles and small, red fruits
  • Synonyms: hornbeam, hawthorn, vegetation
  • Example: In the middle of the churchyard stands an old yew.

Positive Nouns That Start with Y

English language is full of the most beautiful words, which are guaranteed to make you absolutely ebullient while you read on. Let’s dive in the ocean of nouns and pluck few positive nouns that start with Y in the below list:

1. Yo-yo

  • Definition: a toy consisting of a circular object that can be made to go up and down a long piece of string to which it is tied
  • Synonyms: up and down, rotate, seesaw
  • Example: His hand was going up and down like a yo-yo.

2. Yoga

  • Definition: a set of physical and mental exercises, originally from India, intended to give control over the body and mind
  • Synonyms: exercise, practice, meditative practice
  • Example: She does line dancing and yoga in the evenings.

3. Yule

  • Definition: the feast of the nativity of Jesus Christ
  • Synonyms: christmas, christmas-season, beltane
  • Example: The January full moon is also known as ice moon, snow moon and moon after yule.

4. Yuletide

  • Definition: the christmas season
  • Synonyms: christmastide, noel, christmastime
  • Example: These days, as far as the stores are concerned, yuletide starts in September.

5. Yurt

  • Definition: a circular tent of felt or skins on a collapsible framework, used by nomads in Mongolia, Siberia, and Turkey
  • Synonyms: home, house, habitation
  • Example: His yurt stood behind the temple.

5. Yang

  • Definition: (in Chinese philosophy) the active male principle of the universe, characterized as male and creative and associated with heaven, heat, and light
  • Synonyms: principle rule, yin, philosopher
  • Example: In some ways, Bluntman is the yang to Topher’s yin.

6. Yes

  • Definition: a vote or decision for something
  • Synonyms: affirmative, yea
  • Example: The bill passed with 50 “yeses” and 12 “noes.”

Nouns That Start with Y to Describe a Person

In English language many Y nouns, have been created to describe a person and accommodate the wide range of individual characteristics we observe. Let’s take a glance over a list of some nouns that start with Y to describe a person:

1. Yuppie

  • Definition: a fashionable young middle-class person with a well-paid job
  • Synonyms: white-collar worker, three-piecer
  • Example: My friend is a yuppie, he lives in a huge house in Manhattan.

2. Youngster

  • Definition: a child, young person, or young animal
  • Synonyms: young person, young man, teenager
  • Example: The youngsters are gathered in the shade of an outdoor pavilion.

3. Yogi

  • Definition: a person who is proficient in yoga
  • Synonyms: guru, master, mentor
  • Example: Fixing the idea, the yogi can’t hear outer information and have no reaction on it.

4. Yeller

  • Definition: someone who communicates vocally in a very loud voice
  • Synonyms: screamer, shouter, screecher
  • Example: If your boss is a yeller and is creating a tough or even hostile working environment, say something like, “These aren’t the conditions I work best under”.

5. Yeoman

  • Definition: a servant in a royal or noble household, ranking between a sergeant and a groom or a squire and a page
  • Synonyms: assistant, attendant, servent
  • Example: He was heavily guarded, two yeoman warders being in the room with him and another at the door.

6. Yankee

  • Definition: an inhabitant of United States of America
  • Synonyms: U.S. American, American
  • Example: His first cousin, Mariano Rivera, is a Yankee.

7. Yatchtsman

  • Definition: a person who sails yachts
  • Synonyms: sailer, mariner, boater
  • Example: A yachtsman got into trouble off the coast and had to be rescued.

Nouns That Start with Y – Full List (240 Words)

  • Yonker
  • Yankee
  • Yaud
  • Yarwhip
  • Yestreen
  • Yell
  • Yo-Yo
  • Yuga
  • Yttrium
  • Yeomanry
  • Yesterweek
  • Yearnings
  • Yare
  • Yarded
  • Yoke
  • Yestereve
  • Yam
  • Yellowfish
  • Youngman
  • Yohimbine
  • Yi
  • Yu
  • Yellowtop
  • Yoncopin
  • Ytterbium
  • Yaw
  • Yakuza
  • Youngth
  • Yellowhammer
  • Yodler
  • Young
  • Ygdrasyl
  • Yoghurt
  • Ypocras
  • Yalah
  • Yuen
  • Yearend
  • Youpon
  • Yaffingale
  • Yardsticks
  • Yttro-Cerite
  • Yellowseed
  • Yogis
  • Ya
  • Yield
  • Yoni
  • Yttro-Columbite
  • Yardstick
  • Yesternight
  • Yeel
  • Yaguarundi
  • Yufts
  • Yerd
  • Yadda
  • Yellowammer
  • Yghe
  • Yellowbill
  • Yarrow
  • Yawp
  • Yarke
  • Ye
  • Yellowwood
  • Yatchtsman
  • Yen
  • Yoyos
  • Yamma
  • Yowe
  • Yakin
  • Yow
  • Yuletide
  • Yerba
  • Yashmak
  • Yang
  • Yezdi
  • Yeshiva
  • Yren
  • Yankeeism
  • Yuppies
  • Yager
  • Yernut
  • Yelp
  • Yokefellow
  • Yokeage
  • Youngster
  • Yank
  • Yest
  • Yardland
  • Yug
  • Yellowroot
  • Yachtsman
  • Yellow-Golds
  • Yakamilk
  • Yux
  • Yawn
  • Yak
  • Yay
  • Yearning
  • Yakoots
  • Yuppie
  • Yobbo
  • Yestermorn
  • Yakare
  • Yearth
  • Yule
  • Yardful
  • Yapon
  • Yarmulka
  • Yo
  • Yoghourt
  • Yardarm
  • Yucca
  • Yacht
  • Yttro-Tantalite
  • Yob
  • Yokels
  • Yapock
  • Yeoman
  • Yarn
  • Yankees
  • Yellowness
  • Yeara
  • Yama
  • Yieldance
  • Yajur-Veda
  • Yiddish
  • Yachtman
  • Yeastiness
  • Yellowtail
  • Yellowfin
  • Yoit
  • Yawd
  • Yellows
  • Yarnut
  • Yllanraton
  • Yes
  • Yupon
  • Yeve
  • Year
  • Yenite
  • Yate
  • Yachtel
  • Yacare
  • Yeah
  • Yesternoon
  • Youth
  • Yesteryear
  • Yelk
  • Yataghan
  • Yachtsmen
  • Yerk
  • Yumas
  • Yaupon
  • Yuk
  • Yolks
  • Yolk
  • Yorker
  • Yeshivah
  • Yodle
  • Yeomen
  • Yojan
  • Yellowthroat
  • Yoga
  • Yeldhall
  • Yid
  • Yellowbird
  • Yens
  • Yellowlegs
  • Yugoslav
  • Yardages
  • Ynambu
  • Yellowwort
  • Yokemate
  • Yachter
  • Yis
  • Yardwand
  • Yapok
  • Yogi
  • Yuppy
  • Yaws
  • Yowley
  • Yew
  • Yard
  • Yaup
  • Youthhood
  • Yokelet
  • Yauper
  • Yawl
  • Yelper
  • Yorkshire
  • Yodel
  • Yezidi
  • Yeti
  • Yite
  • Yulan
  • Yuan
  • Yift
  • Yokel
  • Yolky
  • Yore
  • Yearbook
  • Yeast
  • Yahoo
  • Yacca
  • Yolkless
  • Yellowshins
  • Yellowshanks
  • Youngger
  • Yearlings
  • Yachtswoman
  • Yle
  • Yttria
  • Youze
  • Yaksha
  • Yaourt
  • Yankee-Doodle
  • Yezidee
  • Yurt
  • Yeldrine
  • Yes-Man
  • Yuckel
  • Youngness
  • Yearling
  • Yaul
  • Yet
  • Yunx
  • Yip
  • Yockel
  • Youthfulness
  • Yumminess
  • Yellow
  • Yeman
  • Yin
  • Yeldrin
  • Y-Axis
  • Yaw-Weed
  • Yogurt
  • Yamp
  • Yardage
  • Yaffle
  • Yeller

Final Thoughts on Nouns That Start with Y

We hope that it was a funny journey to walk through this best collection of nouns that start with Y where really are yards and yards of funky, jazzy and foxy Y-nouns! There are so many nouns starting with Y you should keep in your back pocket to make your scrabble and words with friends opponents shivering in their seats!

In crafting a piece of writing or a speech in classroom, sometimes it can be frustrating trying to find the perfect word, luckily our list of nouns beginning with Y can considerably spice up your English skills.

We sure hope so that you can enrich your English speaking and writing skills through this amazing list of nouns that start with Y.