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” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #28,095) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#28,095
frequency rank, English
366
“Y” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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...

Corpus desk

Index EN-yew · yew · English

yew · rank #28,095 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,095
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 366
  • PHOTO-FINISH Yugoslav

Nearest frequency peer: Yugoslav (+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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “yew”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “yew” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

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).

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

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).yewlands here:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “Yugoslav” (#28,096), “Yangon” (#28,093), “ya'll” (#28,092). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for yew is neighbouring look-alikes ("yo", "yu", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /juː/. Frequency #28,095 among 366 “Y” headwords. 6 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Old Yew, which graspest at the stones ⁠That name the under-lying dead, ⁠Thy fibres net the dreamless head, Thy roots are wrapt about the bones.
  2. Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

wot#28,090AFB#28,102wag#28,081vee#28,077

What to do next

You've looked up "yew". Here's where to go from here.

  • "yew" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "yo". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #28,095 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "Y" letter cohort. Y–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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