yeast
/jist/noun, verb
yeast is spelled Y-E-A-S-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). 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” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of yeast is yeasts.
How many letters and syllables are in yeast?
| Letters | 5: Y-E-A-S-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.7 times per million words; the 11,685th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is yeast?
Yeast appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th 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 yeast?
- UK /jiːst/
- US /jist/
- /iːst/
Yeast has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-yeast.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with yeast?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as yeast from its last stressed vowel (/ist/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of yeast
- yeasts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- yeasting participle, present
- yeasted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does yeast mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 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
A single-celled fungus of any of a wide variety of taxonomic families.
- 3
Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)
- 4
A compressed cake or dried granules of this substance used for mixing with flour to make bread dough rise.
- 5
brewer's yeast, certain species of Saccharomyces, principally Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces carlsbergensis.
- 6
Candida, a ubiquitous fungus that can cause various kinds of infections in humans.
- 7
The resulting infection, candidiasis.
- 8
A frothy foam.
verb
- 1
To ferment.
- 2
To rise.
- 3
slangTo exaggerate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Yeast in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | levure , écume |
| German | Hefe, Hefepilz , Bärme, Germ, Gest |
| Portuguese | fermento, levedura , espuma |
| Spanish | levadura, levadura fúngica , leudante, hurmiento, recentadura |
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 yeast come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).