yikes
/jaɪks/interjection
yikes is spelled Y-I-K-E-S: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,228th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an interjection, yikes means “Expression of shock and alarm” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in yikes?
| Letters | 5: Y-I-K-E-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.8 times per million words; the 16,228th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is yikes?
Yikes appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,228th 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 yikes?
- /jaɪks/
Yikes 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-yikes.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of yikes
- yipes
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does yikes mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
interjection
- 1
informalExpression of shock and alarm.
Yikes! A monster!
- 2
informalExpression of empathy with unpleasant or undesirable circumstances.
John has lost his job and can't pay his mortgage; yikes!
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Yikes in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense expression of shock and alarm:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | houlà |
| German | huch, o Schreck |
| Portuguese | credo!, cruzes! |
| Spanish | ostras, caray, cielos, caramba, huy, ño |
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 yikes come from?
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).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).