yawn
/jɔːn/
"yawn" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“yawn” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #26,663 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #26,663
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored, and sometimes accompanied by pandiculation.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | yawn |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /jɔːn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #26,663 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “yawn” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for yawn is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /jɔːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #26,663 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for yawn, with forms such as "aywn", "yanw", and "yawnn". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "yay", "yen", "yin", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Partly from Middle English yanen, yonen, yenen (“to yawn”), from Old English ġeonian, ġinian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-West Germanic *ginōn, from Proto-Germanic *ginōną (“to yawn”); and partly from Middle English gonen (“to gape, yawn”), from Old Englis… The correct English form is yawn, spelled Y-A-W-N.
Definition
- 1To open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored, and sometimes accompanied by pandiculation.
- 2To say while yawning.
- 3To present a wide opening; gape.
- 4To open the mouth, or to gape, through surprise or bewilderment.
- 5To be eager; to desire to swallow anything; to express desire by yawning.
Etymology
Partly from Middle English yanen, yonen, yenen (“to yawn”), from Old English ġeonian, ġinian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-West Germanic *ginōn, from Proto-Germanic *ginōną (“to yawn”); and partly from Middle English gonen (“to gape, yawn”), from Old English gānian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-West Germanic *gainōn, from Proto-Germanic *gainōną (“to yawn, gape”); both from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-, *ǵʰeyh₁- (“to yawn, gape”). Cognate with North Frisian jåne (“to yawn”), Saterland Frisian jaanje, joanje (“to yawn”), Middle Dutch genen, ghenen (“to yawn”), German Low German jahnen (“to yawn”), German gähnen (“to yawn, gape”), dialectal Swedish gana (“to gape, gawk”), dialectal Norwegian gina (“to gape”). Compare also Old Church Slavonic зѣѭ (zějǫ) (Russian зи́нуть (zínutʹ), зия́ть (zijátʹ)), Greek χαίνω (khaínō)), Latin hiō, Tocharian A śew, Tocharian B kāyā, Lithuanian žioti, Sanskrit जेह् (jeh)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aywn,yanw,yawnn,yawwn,ywan,yyawn
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of yawn - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “yawn”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is Y-A-W-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /jɔːn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “yay” - see the side-by-side comparison. yawn vs yay
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.