yips
"yips" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“yips” is uncommon English (frequency #80,133 among 2,763 “Y” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,133
- frequency rank, English
- 2,763
- “Y” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A nervous condition which prevents a sportsperson from playing properly; especially a condition which causes a golfer to miss an easy putt, or a tennis player to serve a double fault.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | yips |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #80,133 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “yips” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
yips is uncommon English at frequency #80,133 among 2,763 “Y” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A nervous condition which prevents a sportsperson from playing properly; especially a condition which causes a golfer to miss an easy putt, or a tennis player to serve a double fault.".
Zero misspellings are on record for yips in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Coined by Scottish-American professional golfer Tommy Armour in 1927. The correct English form is yips, spelled Y-I-P-S.
Definition
- 1A nervous condition which prevents a sportsperson from playing properly; especially a condition which causes a golfer to miss an easy putt, or a tennis player to serve a double fault.
Etymology
Coined by Scottish-American professional golfer Tommy Armour in 1927.
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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Using “yips”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is Y-I-P-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.