yikes
/jaɪks/
"yikes" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“yikes” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #16,393. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #16,393
- frequency rank, English
- 366
- “Y” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Expression of shock and alarm.
Corpus desk
Index EN-yikes · yikes · English
yikes · rank #16,393 · 7 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,393
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 366
- PHOTO-FINISH yearbook
Nearest frequency peer: yearbook (-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 “yikes”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- wolverine
wolverine
83,612 corpus weight
- wrought
wrought
83,611 corpus weight
- yearbook
yearbook
83,609 corpus weight
- yikes
yikes
83,608 corpus weight
- abbot
abbot
83,606 corpus weight
- abduction
abduction
83,605 corpus weight
What this shows “yikes” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | yikes |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /jaɪks/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #16,393 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “yikes”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around yikes (IPA /jaɪks/), aninterjection. Corpus frequency is #16,393 among 366 “Y” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for yikes, with forms such as "iykes", "yieks", and "yikess". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Yves", "yoke", "Ypres", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Attested from mid-20th century, perhaps derived from yoicks, a hunting call used to urge hounds after a fox, which is attested from 1765–1775, that also is sometimes used as an exclamation of excitement or triumph. Yoicks is perhaps related to the earlier h… The correct English form is yikes, spelled Y-I-K-E-S.
Definition
- 1Expression of shock and alarm.
- 2Expression of empathy with unpleasant or undesirable circumstances.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how yikes appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Yikes! A monster!
Then she told me I was ‘beautiful, for a black girl’. —Yikes!
Etymology
Attested from mid-20th century, perhaps derived from yoicks, a hunting call used to urge hounds after a fox, which is attested from 1765–1775, that also is sometimes used as an exclamation of excitement or triumph. Yoicks is perhaps related to the earlier hoicks. Hoicks (alternatively hoick, hoic or hoik) is a variant of hyke, which was used as an exclamation of encouragement to hounds hunting deer. Further etymology unknown. Alternatively, it may be derived from yipes, which is an earlier exclamation of similar usage as yikes (and is often considered to be an alternative form of yikes). Yipes may be derived from yipe, which itself may be derived from the yie sound often used to express pain or dismay, with the -p adding onto it in the same way as yep and nope. Or, yipes may be derived from the yipping sound that dogs make. Or, possibly a conflation of both of the previous.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- iykes
- yieks
- yikess
- yikkes
- yikse
- ykies
- yyikes
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of yikes - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "yikes", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).