yew

/juː/

//juː// noun

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

"yew" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“yew” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,095 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#28,095
frequency rank, English
3
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and...

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

yew vs yo
33% similar
yew vs yu
33% similar
yew vs yr
33% similar

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

Key facts for yew
PropertyValue
Headwordyew
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/juː/
Letters3
Frequency rank#28,095
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “yew” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). yew lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for yew is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /juː/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,095 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Zero misspellings are on record for yew in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "yo", "yu", "yr", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ew, from Old English īw, ēow, [both cognates of Welsh yw (“yews”), Irish eo, Old Irish eó respectively]; although the Old English form was conjectured to be from Proto-West Germanic *īhu, from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz (compare Icelandic ýr)… The correct English form is yew, spelled Y-E-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    A species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia.
  2. 2
    Any tree or shrub of the genus Taxus.
  3. 3
    Other conifers resembling plants in genus Taxus:
  4. 4
    Other conifers resembling plants in genus Taxus:
  5. 5
    The wood of such trees.
  6. 6
    A bow for archery, made of yew wood.

Etymology

From Middle English ew, from Old English īw, ēow, [both cognates of Welsh yw (“yews”), Irish eo, Old Irish eó respectively]; although the Old English form was conjectured to be from Proto-West Germanic *īhu, from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz (compare Icelandic ýr), masculine variant of *īwō (compare Dutch ijf, German Eibe), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyHw-. See also Hittite 𒄑𒂊𒅀𒀭 (eyan, “type of evergreen”), Latgalian īva (“bird cherry”), Lithuanian ievà (“bird cherry”), Russian и́ва (íva, “willow”).

This word in other languages

tejo(Español)if(Français)Eibe(Deutsch)teixo(Português)

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 "yew"?
"yew" is spelled Y-E-W. The IPA pronunciation is /juː/.
What does "yew" mean?
As a noun, "yew" means: A species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and...
What words are commonly confused with "yew"?
"yew" is commonly confused with "yo", "yu", "yr". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "yew"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "yew" is /juː/. 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 "yew"?
From Middle English ew, from Old English īw, ēow, [both cognates of Welsh yw (“yews”), Irish eo, Old Irish eó respectively]; although the Old English form was conjectured to be from Proto-West Germanic *īhu, from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz (compare Ice... 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.

Using “yew”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is Y-E-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /juː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “yo” - see the side-by-side comparison. yew vs yo
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list