yeti

See also: Yeti, yéti, yẹti, and yètǐ

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Tibetan གཡའ་དྲེད (g.ya' dred, “wildman, yeti”), compound of གཡའ (g.ya', “dirt, rust, slate”) and དྲེད (dred, “bear”). Attested since 1937.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjɛ.ti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈjɛ.ti/, [ˈjɛ.ɾi]
• Rhymes: -ɛti

Noun

yeti (plural yeti or yetis)

1. (cryptozoology) An unidentified humanoid animal said to live in the Himalayas.

   Synonym: abominable snowman

   Coordinate terms: bigfoot, sasquatch, yowie, menk

   • 1937 November 13, Balu, “Are The 'Snowmen' Bears?”, in The Times‎^[1], page 13:

     The Sherpas had no hesitation in pronouncing them to be those of a Snowman or "Yeti" (not "mirka" as Mr.Smythe's Tibetans had it), and they thought he was the smaller man-eating variety and not his larger yak-eating brother. […] They may even have been our friend ursus arctoc pruinosus, but they were no more like the tracks of our "Yeti" than those of a two-toed anteater or an armadillo.

   • 1962, Edmund Hillary, Desmond Doig, “Into the Mingbo Valley”, in High in the Thin Cold Air: The Story of the Himalayan Expedition, led by Sir Edmund Hillary, sponsored by World Book Encyclopedia‎^[2], Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 131:

     There is no doubt that the Sherpas accept the fact that the Yeti really exists. But then they believe just as confidently that their gods live in comfort on the summit of Mount Everest. We found it quite impossible to divorce the Yeti from the supernatural.

Derived terms

• yeti boot
• yeti crab
• yeti lobster

Descendants

• → Portuguese: iéti

Translations

unidentified animal

• Arabic: يَتِي m (yatī)
• Bulgarian: йети m (jeti)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雪人 (zh) (xuěrén), 野人 (zh) (yěrén)

• Czech: yeti m, sněžný muž m
• Dutch: yeti (nl) m
• Dzongkha: མི་རྒོད (mi rgod)
• Esperanto: jetio
• Finnish: lumimies (fi), jeti (fi)
• French: yéti (fr) m
• Georgian: იეტი (ieṭi), თოვლის კაცი (tovlis ḳaci)
• German: Yeti (de) m, Schneemensch (de) m
• Hebrew: יטי
• Hungarian: jeti (hu)
• Indonesian: yeti
• Italian: yeti (it) m
• Japanese: イエティー (ietī), 野人 (ja) (やじん, yajin)
• Korean: 예티 (yeti)
• Macedonian: је́ти n (jéti), сне́жен чо́век m (snéžen čóvek)
• Mongolian: алмас (mn) (almas), цасны хүн (casny xün), мигү (migü)
• Nepali: हिममानव (himmānav)
• Persian: یتی
• Polish: yeti (pl) m
• Portuguese: iéti (pt) m, abominável homem das neves m
• Russian: йе́ти (ru) m (jjéti) (indeclinable), сне́жный челове́к (ru) m (snéžnyj čelovék), бигфу́т (ru) m (bigfút)
• Sherpa: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: yeti m
• Swedish: yeti (sv) c, jeti c, snöman (sv)
• Thai: เยติ (th) (yaydtì)
• Tibetan: མི་རྒོད (mi rgod)
• Ukrainian: йє́ті m (jjéti), є́ті m (jéti), снігова́ люди́на f (snihová ljudýna)
• Vietnamese: người tuyết (vi)
• Yakut: чучунаа (čučunaa)

Anagrams

• -iety, yite

Anguthimri

Noun

yeti

1. (Mpakwithi) bird

References

• Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 189

Czech

Alternative forms

• yetti

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈjɛtɪ]
• Hyphenation: ye‧ti

Noun

yeti m anim

1. (cryptozoology) yeti

   Synonym: sněžný muž

Declension

Declension of yeti (masculine animate in -i/-y)

	singular	plural
nominative	yeti	yetiové, yeti
genitive	yetiho	yetiů, yetich
dative	yetimu	yetiům, yetim
accusative	yetiho	yetie, yeti
vocative	yeti	yetiové, yeti
locative	yetim	yetiích, yetich
instrumental	yetim	yetii, yetimi

Further reading

• “yeti”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)

Dutch

Etymology

Probably borrowed from English yeti, from Tibetan གཡའ་དྲེད (g.ya' dred, “rock bear”), compound of གཡའ (g.ya', “rocky or rocky place”) and དྲེད (dred, “bear”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjeː.ti/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ye‧ti

Noun

yeti m (plural yeti's, diminutive yetietje n)

1. (cryptozoology) yeti

   Synonym: verschrikkelijke sneeuwman

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from Tibetan གཡའ་དྲེད (g.ya' dred, “rock bear”).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /jəˈti/ [jəˈt̪i]
• Rhymes: -i
• Syllabification: ye‧ti

Noun

yéti (plural yeti-yeti)

1. (cryptozoology) yeti (an unidentified humanoid animal said to live in the Himalayas)

Further reading

• “yeti”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Noun

yeti m (invariable)

1. (cryptozoology) yeti

   Synonym: abominevole uomo delle nevi

Polish

yeti

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English yeti.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjɛ.ti/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛti
• Syllabification: ye‧ti

Noun

yeti m animal (indeclinable)

1. (cryptozoology) yeti, abominable snowman (unidentified humanoid animal said to live in the Himalayas)

   Synonym: człowiek śniegu

Further reading

• “yeti”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[3] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “yeti”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)
• yeti in PWN's encyclopedia

Portuguese

Noun

yeti m (plural yetis)

1. alternative form of iéti

Further reading

• “yeti”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French yéti.

Noun

yeti m (plural yeti)

1. yeti, abominable snowman

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	yeti	yetiul	yeti	yetii
genitive-dative	yeti	yetiului	yeti	yetilor
vocative	yetiule		yetilor

Slovak

Etymology

Derived from Tibetan གཡའ་དྲེད (g.ya' dred, “rock bear”), compound of གཡའ (g.ya', “rocky or rocky place”) and དྲེད (dred, “bear”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jeti/, [ˈjeti]
• Rhymes: -eti
• Hyphenation: ye‧ti

Noun

yeti m pers

1. (cryptozoology) yeti

   Synonyms: snežný človek m, snežný muž m

Declension

Declension of yeti
(pattern kuli)

	singular	plural
nominative	yeti	yetiovia
genitive	yetiho	yetiov
dative	yetimu	yetiom
accusative	yetiho	yetiov
locative	yetim	yetioch
instrumental	yetim	yetiami

Further reading

• “yeti”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈʝeti/ [ˈɟ͡ʝe.t̪i]

• IPA^(key): /ˈʝeti/ [ˈɟ͡ʝe.t̪i] (everywhere but Pampas and southern Argentina and Uruguay)
• IPA^(key): /ˈʃeti/ [ˈʃe.t̪i] (Buenos Aires and environs)
• IPA^(key): /ˈʒeti/ [ˈʒe.t̪i] (elsewhere in Pampas and southern Argentina, Uruguay)

• Rhymes: -eti
• Syllabification: ye‧ti

Noun

yeti m (plural yetis)

1. (folklore) yeti

Further reading

• “yeti”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swedish

Noun

yeti c

1. (cryptozoology) yeti

Turkish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [jeti]
• Hyphenation: ye‧ti

Noun

yeti (definite accusative yetiyi, plural yetiler)

1. (cryptozoology) yeti
2. (philosophy, psychology) faculty, skill

Declension

Declension of yeti

	singular	plural
nominative	yeti	yetiler
definite accusative	yetiyi	yetileri
dative	yetiye	yetilere
locative	yetide	yetilerde
ablative	yetiden	yetilerden
genitive	yetinin	yetilerin