Skip to main content
PlainSpell

yet

/jɛt/adverb, conjunction, noun, verb

yet is spelled Y-E-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 347 times per million words in written English, the 263rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adverb, yet means “In negative or interrogative use, often with an expectation or potential of something happening in the future” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in yet?

Letters3: Y-E-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing347 times per million words; the 263rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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 yet?

Yet appears 347 times per million words in written English, the 263rd 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 yet?

  • US /jɛt/
  • Australia /jet/
  • /jɪt/

Yet 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-us-yet.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with yet?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as yet from its last stressed vowel (/ɛt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tye, tey, ety.

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 yet

  • yit US
  • yeat
  • yets present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • yetting participle, present
  • yetted past, participle
  • yoten participle, past
  • yot past
  • yotten participle, past

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

What does yet mean?

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

adverb

  1. 1

    In negative or interrogative use, often with an expectation or potential of something happening in the future.

    I haven't finished yet.

  2. 2

    In negative imperative use, asking for an action to be delayed.

    Don't switch it on yet – wait until I've reconnected the pump.

  3. 3

    archaicIn affirmative use: still.

    He is yet breathing. (He is still breathing.)

  4. 4

    At some future time; eventually.

    The riddle will be solved yet.

  5. 5

    Not as of the time referenced.

    I’ve yet to see him. – I have not yet seen him.

  6. 6

    In addition.

    There are two hours yet to go until our destination.

  7. 7

    Even.

    K-2 is yet higher than this.

conjunction

  1. 1

    Nevertheless; however; but; despite that.

    I thought I knew you, yet how wrong was I!

noun

  1. 1

    A metal pan or boiler; yetling.

verb

  1. 1

    nonstandardTo get.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo pour.

    […] & stablenes of perseueraunce; graunt me for all wor[l]dly consolacyons the swete, gracyous vnccyon of the holy goost, & for all carnall loue

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo melt; found; cast (e.g. metal, by pouring it into a mould when molten).

    […] whiche shall present him selfe openly stained or embrued with sondry colours, or poudered with the duste of stones that he cutteth, or perfumed with tedious sauours of the metalles by him yoten.

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

Yet in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjusqu'à présent, encore (thus far), pourtant, mais, or (nevertheless; however)
Germannoch (thus far), doch (nevertheless; however)
Portugueseainda (thus far), porém, mas (nevertheless; however)
Spanishaún (thus far), sin embargo, no obstante, mas (nevertheless; however), algún día (at some future time), todavía (not as of the time referenced)

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 yet come from?

Inherited from Middle English yet, yit, from Old English ġīet, gȳta, from Proto-West Germanic *jūta, from Proto-Germanic *juta (compare West Frisian jit, jitte (“yet”), Dutch ooit (“ever”), German jetzt (“now”)), compound of (1) *ju (“already”, adverb), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yew-, accusative of *h₂óyu (“long time”) and (2) the Proto-Germanic *ta (“to, towards”), from Proto-Indo-European *do. More at aye and -th.

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

What to look up after yet