Soy or soya?
soy is a noun meaning “A common East Asian liquid sauce, made by subjecting boiled beans to long…”; soya is a noun meaning “Alternative form of soy”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) soy is about 7.8 times as common as soya.
What is the difference between soy and soya?
| soy | soya | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective, verb | noun |
| Meaning | A common East Asian liquid sauce, made by subjecting boiled beans to long fermentation and then long digestion in salt and water Soybeans, or the protein derived from them | UKAlternative form of soy |
| Example | I like a little soy with my rice | none recorded |
| Forms | soys | none |
| Pronunciation | /sɔɪ/ | /ˈsɔɪ.ə/ |
| In writing | 4.3 times per million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: soy and soya in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of soy and soya
soy
- 1
A common East Asian liquid sauce, made by subjecting boiled beans to long fermentation and then long digestion in salt and water
I like a little soy with my rice
- 2
derogatoryCharacteristic of a soy boy; weak, unmasculine, etc
This whole drama is the soyest thing I've ever seen
- 3
derogatorySynonym of soy out (“to act in the manner of a soy boy”)
- 4
Soybeans, or the protein derived from them
These candles are made from soy
soya
- 1
UKAlternative form of soy
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, soy or soya?
soy appears 4.3 times per million words; soya about once in every 2 million words.
soy 4.3 times per million wordssoya about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search soy vs soya?
“soy vs soya” is searched about 390 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“soya vs soy”, “soy or soya”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.