yeísmo
Spanish, noun/ʝeˈismo/
yeísmo is spelled Y-E-Í-S-M-O (6 letters) and appears about once in every 13 million words in written Spanish, the 135,232nd most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Yeísmo is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “the merging of the sounds represented by the letter elle ("ll") and the letter ye ("y")” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Sustitución del sonido representado con la letra ⟨ll⟩ (el fonema /ʎ/) por el de la ⟨y⟩ (generalmente /ʝ/), de…”.
What does yeísmo mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinethe merging of the sounds represented by the letter elle ("ll") and the letter ye ("y")
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Sustitución del sonido representado con la letra ⟨ll⟩ (el fonema /ʎ/) por el de la ⟨y⟩ (generalmente /ʝ/), de modo que palabras como «calló» y «cayó» resulten homófonas (suenan igual).
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of yeísmo
- yeísmos plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce yeísmo?
- /ʝeˈismo/
- [ɟ͡ʝeˈiz.mo]
- [ʝeˈismo]
Sources: English Wiktionary, Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is yeísmo in Spanish?
yeísmo appears about once in every 13 million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).