yeah

See also: þeah

English

Etymology

From a variation of yea, itself from Middle English ya, ye, from Old English ġēa (“yes”), from Proto-Germanic *ja (“yes; thus, so”), from Proto-Indo-European *yē (“already”). Cognate with West Frisian ja, Dutch ja, German ja, Danish ja, Norwegian Bokmål ja, Norwegian Nynorsk ja and Swedish ja, Icelandic já. Interestingly, although perhaps merely coincidentally, modern "yeah" seems to possess nearly the same pronunciation as its Old English ancestor (Old English "ġēa" being /jæːɑ/, Modern English "yeah" being [jɛə̯] or [jæə̯]) and consequently has really no other words that rhyme with it in rhotic dialects. The reason behind its seeming lack of pronunciation shift is uncertain–although it is quite possible that it simply evolved from a dialectal form of yea which developed a centring diphthong–as other words that had similar pronunciations in Old English did shift in pronunciation. It is alternatively possible that, due to its constant use (and its never being accepted as a formal term), its pronunciation has remained rigidly in place.

Alternative (but less likely) etymology derives yeah from a drawling pronunciation of yes. For further etymology, see yes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [jɛə̯], [jɛ.ə], or [jæə̯]

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛə

Particle

yeah (not comparable)

1. (informal) Yes.

Synonyms

• (agreement): yes, yep, yup, aye, ya, yea, uh-huh
• (joy): hurrah, hurray, woohoo, yay, yippee

Translations

Note: Many languages have no equivalent of this word; in those cases, the translations given here are for yes.

yes

• Arabic: أَيْوَة‎‎ (ʾaywa) (Eastern Arabic), إِيَّة‎‎ (ʾiyya) (Western Arabic), آ‎‎ (ar) (ʾā) (Egyptian Arabic)
• Azerbaijani: həri
• Catalan: sí (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 是啊 (zh) (shì a), 對啊, 对啊 (duì a), 啊 (zh) (à), 嗯 (zh) (ǹg)

• Czech: jo (cs), no (cs)
• Dutch: ja (nl), jawel (nl)
• Finnish: joo (fi), juu (fi)
• French: ouais (fr)
• German: (yeah:) jo (de), joa; (yes:) ja (de)
• Greek: ναι (el) (nai)
• Hindi: हाँ (hi) (hā̃)
• Hungarian: igen (hu)
• Icelandic: já (is)
• Interlingua: si (ia)
• Italian: si (it), già (it)
• Japanese: うん (un), そう (ja) (sō), ええ (ja) (ē), ああ (ja) (ā)
• Korean: 응 (ko) (eung), 네 (ko) (ne), 예 (ko) (ye), 응 (ko) (eung), 어 (ko) (eo)
• Navajo: wehee

• Norwegian: ja (no), yeah
• Persian: بله‎‎ (fa) (bale), آره‎‎ (fa) (âre)
• Polish: tak (pl), no (pl), ta (pl) m (colloquial), aha (pl) m, acha (pl)
• Portuguese: sim (pt)
• Russian: ага́ (ru) (agá), ага́ (ru) (ahá), угу́ (ru) (ugú), угу́ (ru) (uhú), так (ru) (tak), ну (ru) (nu)
• Serbo-Croatian: da (sh) da (sh)

  Cyrillic: dа

  Roman: da (sh)

• Slovak: no
• Slovene: ja (sl)
• Spanish: sí (es)
• Swedish: ja (sv) n
• Thai: เออ (th) (əə)
• Ukrainian: еге́ (ehé)
• Urdu: ہاں‎‎ (hā̃)
• Vietnamese: ừ (informal), ờ (vi) (informal)
• Volapük: si (vo)
• Welsh: iah

Interjection

yeah

1. Expressing joy, celebration, glee, etc.

   Yeah! We did it!

Derived terms

• yeah right

Translations

expressing joy

• Dutch: euh (nl)
• Finnish: jee (fi), joo (fi)
• French: ouais (fr)
• Italian: sì (it), vai (it), evvai (it), evviva

• Japanese: やった (yatta)
• Portuguese: é! (pt), isso aí!
• Russian: да! (ru) (da!), ура́! (ru) (urá!), э-ге́й! (e-géj!)
• Ukrainian: так! (uk) (tak!)

See also

• yes

Anagrams

• Haye, haye, heya