ы

Cyrillic letter Ы ы (Ы ы), normal above, italics below.
Character	ы
Unicode name	CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YERU
Code point	U+044B
Unicode block	Cyrillic
← ъ [U+044A] [U+044C] ь →

Handwritten forms

See also: Appendix:Variations of "i"

Russian

Etymology

Like many Cyrillic letters, originally the letter "y"/"yery" was formed from a ligature: "ꙑ" — formed from "ъ" and "і" (formerly written either dotless or with two dots (see "ї")) or "и", whose former letterform resembled "н". In medieval manuscripts, it is almost without exception found as "ъі" or "ъи". Once the letters "ъ" and "ь" subsequently lost their values as vowels in the Slavic languages, the current simplified form "ы" evolved.

Letter

ы • (y) (lower case, upper case Ы)

1. The twenty-ninth letter of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. Its name is ы (ɨ) or еры (jɛrɨˊ) (obsolete) and it is a vowel that is somewhat like the i in bill with the tongue retracted. It is preceded by Ъ and followed by Ь in the Russian alphabet.

Interjection

ы • (Ы)

1. (Internet slang) lol, used to express laughter. Usually used as "ы-ы-ы", to show the crying sound you make after you were laughing for too long.
2. (Internet slang) ы? as a closing clause: Understand? Agree?

See also

• Wikipedia article on the Cyrillic alphabet
• Search en.wiktionary.org for articles beginning with: Ы, ы
• Close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/ in Wikipedia