yeah

See also: þeah

English

Etymology 1

Colloquial form of yea or yes. Compare nah.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjɛ(ə)/, /ˈjæ.(ə)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (US); “yeah” (interjection):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə, -ɛ, -æ

Particle

yeah

1. (colloquial) Yes.

   Synonyms: yes, yep, yup, aye, ya, yea, uh-huh; see also Thesaurus:yes

   —You wanna get pizza for dinner? —Yeah, all right.

2. (colloquial) Used to express acknowledgment of what was previously said.

   —You wanna get pizza for dinner? —Yeah, I think I'm gonna have leftovers instead.

3. (colloquial) Used to ascertain the continued attention of the listener.

   Synonym: (Canada) eh

   I was walking down the road, yeah, and you know what I saw, yeah? A dog wearing a dress!

Usage notes

• The particle for ascertaining attention may be proscribed.

Derived terms

• aww yeah
• fuck yeah
• heck yeah
• hells yeah
• hell yeah
• I will yeah
• oh yeah
• shit yeah
• yeah-huh
• yeah-nah
• yeah, no

 

Translations

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

yes

• 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 (de); (yes) ja (de)
• Greek: ναι (el) (nai)
• Hebrew: כע (ke)
• Hindi: हाँ (hi) (hā̃)
• Hungarian: igen (hu), ja (hu)
• Icelandic: já (is)
• Interlingua: si (ia)
• Italian: sì (it), già (it)
• Japanese: うん (ja) (un), そう (ja) (sō), ええ (ja) (ē), ああ (ja) (ā)
• Kapampangan: awa, uwa
• Korean: 응 (ko) (eung), 네 (ko) (ne), 예 (ko) (ye), 응 (ko) (eung), 어 (ko) (eo)
• Lithuanian: taip (lt), jo (lt)
• Navajo: wehee
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ja (no), yeah, ja vel (no)

  Nynorsk: ja (nn), yeah, ja vel

• Occitan: òc (oc)
• Old Church Slavonic: ⰵⰹ (ei)
• Persian:

  Dari: آه (fa) (āh), بَلی (fa) (balē), آری (fa) (ārē)

  Iranian Persian: بله (fa) (bale), آره (fa) (âre)

• Polish: tak (pl), no (pl), aha (pl) m, ta (pl) m (colloquial)
• Portuguese: sim (pt), é (pt), iá (pt) (informal)
• Romanian: da (ro)
• 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: да̑

  Roman: dȃ (sh)

• Sicilian: sì (scn), sè (scn), certu
• Slovak: no (sk) , hej
• Slovene: ja (sl)
• Spanish: sí (es), seh, sipi (es)
• Swedish: ja (sv) n
• Thai: เออ (th) (əə)
• Ukrainian: еге́ (ehé), та (uk) (ta)
• Urdu: ہاں (hā̃) (informal)
• Vietnamese: ừ (vi) (informal), ờ (vi) (informal)
• Volapük: si (vo)
• Welsh: iah
• Yoruba: bẹ́ẹ̀ ni

Interjection

yeah

1. Expressing joy, celebration, glee, etc.

   Yeah! We did it!

Synonyms

• hurrah, hurray, woohoo, yay, yippee

Derived terms

• yeah right

Translations

expressing joy

• Dutch: yes (nl), jippie (nl)
• Finnish: jee (fi), joo (fi)
• French: ouais (fr)
• Italian: sì (it), vai (it), evvai (it), evviva
• Japanese: やった (yatta), イェー (slang)
• Portuguese: é! (pt), isso aí!
• Russian: да! (ru) (da!), ура́! (ru) (urá!), э-ге́й! (e-géj!), е! (ru) (je!) (slang)
• Sicilian: forza ḍḍocu!
• Ukrainian: так! (uk) (tak!), та! (uk) (ta!)

See also

• yes

Etymology 2

See year.

Noun

yeah (plural yeahs)

1. Pronunciation spelling of year.

Anagrams

• Haye, haye, heya

Chinese

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “From English?”)

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): je¹

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: je¹
    • Yale: yē
    • Cantonese Pinyin: je¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: yé¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jɛː⁵⁵/

Noun

yeah

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) V sign

Verb

yeah

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to make a V sign

Adjective

yeah

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, somewhat dated) cool; stylish