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yankee

Yan·kee/ˈjæŋ.ki/noun

yankee is spelled Y-A-N-K-E-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (Yan·kee). It appears 4.0 times per million words in written English, the 12,940th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, yankee means “A headsail resembling a genoa or a jib but with a high-cut clew, normally used together with a staysail. A sailing boat is typically equipped with…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of yankee is yankees.

How many letters and syllables are in yankee?

Letters6: Y-A-N-K-E-E
Syllables2: Yan·kee
In writing4.0 times per million words; the 12,940th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is yankee?

Yankee appears 4.0 times per million words in written English, the 12,940th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce yankee?

  • /ˈjæŋ.ki/
  • /ˈjeɪ̯ŋ.ki/
  • /ˈjɛ̃ŋ.ki/

Yankee has 2 syllables, split Yan·kee in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-Yankee.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-yankee.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of yankee

  • yankees plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does yankee mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A headsail resembling a genoa or a jib but with a high-cut clew, normally used together with a staysail. A sailing boat is typically equipped with three yankee sails of different sizes, number one being the largest.

  2. 2

    Alternative letter-case form of Yankee from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.

  3. 3

    obsoleteObsolete form of Yankee (“either a US Northerner or any US American”).

    The quidnunctious yankee woman is posted in gynecology. She never breeds.

noun

as Yankee
  1. 1

    A native or inhabitant of the northern United States.

  2. 2

    A native or inhabitant of New England.

  3. 3

    An anglo, someone without French ancestry; a native or inhabitant of the rest of the United States.

  4. 4

    CommonwealthderogatoryA native or inhabitant of the United States in general.

  5. 5

    derogatoryAny individual associated with the Union; that is, the United States federal government, during the American Civil War.

  6. 6

    A player for the New York Yankees.

  7. 7

    A large triangular headsail used in light or moderate winds and set on the fore topmast stay. Unlike a genoa it does not fill the whole fore triangle, but is set in combination with the working staysail.

  8. 8

    A wager on four selections, consisting of 11 separate bets: six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold accumulator.

verb

as Yankee
  1. 1

    CanadaUSdatedoffensiveslangto cheat, trick or swindle somebody; to misrepresent something

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Yankee in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
FrenchYankee (native or inhabitant of the USA)
GermanAmi, Yankee (native or inhabitant of the USA)
Portugueseianque (native or inhabitant of the USA)
Spanishyanqui (native or inhabitant of the USA), gabacho (native or inhabitant of the Northern USA), Yanqui ((baseball) player that plays for the New York…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does yankee come from?

First attested in 1765, when it was described as "a name of derision … given by the Southern people on the Continent to those of New England". Various suggestions have been made as to its origin: that it derives from a Cherokee word meaning "slave" or "coward" and was applied to the New Englanders by the Virginians because the former refused to aid the latter in a war against the Cherokees; that it derives from Yengees, an Indian corruption of English; and that it derives from Janke, a pet form of the common Dutch forename Jan. The OED regards the last of these as "perhaps the most plausible".

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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