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PlainSpell

young

/jʌŋ/adjective, noun, verb

young is spelled Y-O-U-N-G: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 269 times per million words in written English, the 356th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Young, the name). As an adjective, young means “In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in young?

Letters5: Y-O-U-N-G
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing269 times per million words; the 356th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 young?

Young appears 269 times per million words in written English, the 356th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Young, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce young?

  • /jʌŋ/
  • /jʊŋɡ/
  • /jʊŋ/

Young 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-uk-young.ogg, En-us-young.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with young

Also written: young, dumb, and full of come.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of young

  • younger comparative
  • youngest superlative
  • youngs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • younging participle, present
  • younged participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does young mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.

    a lamb is a young sheep

  2. 2

    At an early stage of existence or development; having recently come into existence.

    the age of space travel is still young

  3. 3

    advanced in age; (far towards or) at a specified stage of existence or age.

    And thou, our Mother, twice two centuries young, Bend with bright shafts of truth thy bow fresh-strung.

  4. 4

    Junior (of two related people with the same name).

  5. 5

    Early (of a decade of life).

  6. 6

    Youthful; having the look or qualities of a young person.

    My grandmother is a very active woman and is quite young for her age.

  7. 7

    Of or belonging to the early part of life.

    The cynical world soon shattered my young dreams.

  8. 8

    obsoleteHaving little experience; inexperienced; unpracticed; ignorant; weak.

noun

  1. 1

    Offspring, especially the immature offspring of animals.

    The lion caught a gnu to feed its young.

verb

  1. 1

    informalTo become or seem to become younger.

  2. 2

    informalTo cause to appear younger.

  3. 3

    To exhibit younging.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate young?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of young: YBG, yng.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Young in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjeune (in the early part of life or growth), petit (offspring)
Germanjung, jugendlich (in the early part of life or growth), Nachkomme, Nachwuchs, Brut (offspring), unerfahren (having little experience)
Portuguesejovem (in the early part of life or growth), filhote (offspring), de juventude (belonging in the early part of life)
Spanishjoven, chibolo (in the early part of life or growth), cría (offspring)

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 young come from?

Inherited from Middle English yong, yonge, from Old English ġeong, from Proto-West Germanic *jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuHn̥ḱós, from *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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