yeast

/jiːst/

//jiːst// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"yeast" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“yeast” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #11,824. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,824
frequency rank, English
366
“Y” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
10
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An often humid, yellowish froth produced by fermenting malt worts, and used to brew beer, leaven bread, and also used in certain medicines.

Corpus desk

Index EN-yeast · yeast · English

yeast · rank #11,824 · 6 variants · 10 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,824
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 366
  • PHOTO-FINISH XP

Nearest frequency peer: XP (-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 “yeast”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “yeast” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

yeast vs yet
60% similar
yeast vs yes
60% similar
yeast vs Yeats
40% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for yeast
PropertyValue
Headwordyeast
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/jiːst/
Letters5
Frequency rank#11,824
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs10
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “yeast”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).yeastlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “XP” (#11,823), “wong” (#11,822), “wander” (#11,821). Among 366 “Y” headwords, “yeast” is #11,824. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around yeast (IPA /jiːst/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #11,824 among 366 “Y” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for yeast, with forms such as "eyast", "yaest", and "yeasst". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "yet", "yes", "Yeats", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English yest, yeest, gest, gist, from Old English ġist, ġyst, from Proto-West Germanic *jestu, from Proto-Germanic *jestuz. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jääst (“yeast”), West Frisian gêst, gist (“yeast”), Dutch gist (“yeast”), German Low Germa… The correct English form is yeast, spelled Y-E-A-S-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    An often humid, yellowish froth produced by fermenting malt worts, and used to brew beer, leaven bread, and also used in certain medicines.
  2. 2
    A single-celled fungus of a wide variety of taxonomic families.
  3. 3
    A single-celled fungus of a wide variety of taxonomic families.
  4. 4
    A single-celled fungus of a wide variety of taxonomic families.
  5. 5
    A single-celled fungus of a wide variety of taxonomic families.
  6. 6
    A single-celled fungus of a wide variety of taxonomic families.
  7. 7
    A single-celled fungus of a wide variety of taxonomic families.
  8. 8
    A frothy foam.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how yeast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. A microscopical examination of the yeast taken from these rapid vigorous fermentations will only be able to give useful conclusions in one respect.
  2. But what most puzzled and confounded you was a long, limber, portentous, black mass of something hovering in the centre of the picture over three blue, dim, perpendicular lines floating in a nameless yeast.

Etymology

From Middle English yest, yeest, gest, gist, from Old English ġist, ġyst, from Proto-West Germanic *jestu, from Proto-Germanic *jestuz. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jääst (“yeast”), West Frisian gêst, gist (“yeast”), Dutch gist (“yeast”), German Low German Gest (“yeast”), German Gischt (“sea foam”), Swedish jäst (“yeast”), Norwegian jest (“yeast”), Icelandic jöstur (“yeast”).

This word in other languages

levadura(Español)levure(Français)Hefe(Deutsch)fermento(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • eyast
  • yaest
  • yeasst
  • yeastt
  • yesat
  • yyeast

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of yeast - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

eyast2yaest2yeasst1yeastt1yesat2yyeast1
Edit distance from "yeast"

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

How do you spell "yeast"?
"yeast" is spelled Y-E-A-S-T. The IPA pronunciation is /jiːst/.
What does "yeast" mean?
As a noun, "yeast" means: An often humid, yellowish froth produced by fermenting malt worts, and used to brew beer, leaven bread, and also used in certain medicines.
What words are commonly confused with "yeast"?
"yeast" is commonly confused with "yet", "yes", "Yeats". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "yeast"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "yeast" is /jiːst/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "yeast"?
From Middle English yest, yeest, gest, gist, from Old English ġist, ġyst, from Proto-West Germanic *jestu, from Proto-Germanic *jestuz. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jääst (“yeast”), West Frisian gêst, gist (“yeast”), Dutch gist (“yeast”), German... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "yeast", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Abdul#11,827verge#11,819tutor#11,817Aston#11,837

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

wong6 variantstoby6 variantsBonnie6 variantsbulb6 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list