yawn
/jɔːn/
"yawn" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“yawn” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #26,663. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #26,663
- frequency rank, English
- 366
- “Y” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-yawn · yawn · English
yawn · rank #26,663 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #26,663
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 366
- PHOTO-FINISH worshipping
Nearest frequency peer: worshipping (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “yawn”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- voiceover
voiceover
73,342 corpus weight
- willfully
willfully
73,341 corpus weight
- worshipping
worshipping
73,339 corpus weight
- yawn
yawn
73,338 corpus weight
- Yiddish
Yiddish
73,337 corpus weight
- adrift
adrift
73,334 corpus weight
What this shows “yawn” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “yawn”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around yawn (IPA /jɔːn/), averb. Corpus frequency is #26,663 among 366 “Y” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how yawn appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I could see my students yawning, so I knew the lesson was boring them.
[…] I found my self towards Evening, first empty and sickish at my Stomach, and nearer Night mightily enclin’d to yawning and sleepy […]
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "yawn", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).