Words that Start with Y

List of words that start with Y! In the modern English alphabet, Y is the twenty-fifth letter. Y originally appeared with the Greeks. The Roman language did not include the sound, so when they incorporated it into Latin it was usually only used for foreign words. Y is also sometimes considered a vowel (many children learn the vowels as, “A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y”). Y is considered a vowel if:

The word has no other vowel (such as cry),
Y is at the end of the word or syllable (such as bicycle),
Y is in the middle of a syllable (such as system),

Examples of Y being used as a vowel include: by, gym, fly, spy, lynch, why, and dry.

Y is an infrequently used letter, appearing in only 2% of texts. There are even less “official” letters found in dictionaries.

Y is usually pronounced “yuh.”

Table of Contents

Positive Words that Start with Y

Below are 25 words that start with Y that are considered positive:

Yahoo
Yarn
Yay
Yea
Yeah
Yearn
Yearning
Yearningly
Yen
Yes
Yield
Yip
Yo
Yodel
Yoga
Young
Young-gun
Yours
Yourself
Youth
Youthful
Youthfully
Yummiest
Yummy
Yup

Descriptive Words that Start with Y

Below are 25 words used to describe things that start with Y (Y words):

Yammer
Yankee
Yawning
Year
Yearling
Yearlong
Yearly
Yearn
Yearnful
Yearning
Yellow
Yellower
Yelping
Yesterday
Yesterdays
Yiddish
Yielding
Yon
Yonder
Young
Youngish
Yours
Yttrias
Yugoslavian
Yuletide

Adjectives that Start with Y

Adjectives are words that modify nouns and pronouns. They usually are used to provide additional description. Below are 25 adjectives that start with Y:

Yappy
Yawning
Year-long
Yearly
Yearning
Yeasty
Yellow-bellied
Yellowed
Yellowish
Yelping
Yester
Yew
Yiddish
Yieldable
Yielding
Yodeling
Yon
Yonder
Younger
Youngish
Your
Yucky
Yugoslav
Yugoslavian
Yuletide