yako

\ja.ko\

/\ja.ko\/ intj

The verdict

“yako” is uncommon French (frequency #79,862 among 198 “Y” headwords), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#79,862
frequency rank, French
198
“Y” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mot prononcé pour exprimer la compassion, la condoléance, notamment aux proches lors d’un décès, ou à un malade pour lui souhaiter un bon rétablissement

Corpus desk

Index FR-yako · yako · French

yako · rank #79,862 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #79,862
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 198
  • PHOTO-FINISH workflow

Nearest frequency peer: workflow (-2 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « yako »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « yako » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for yako
PropertyValue
Headwordyako
LanguageFrench
Part of speechInterjection
IPA\ja.ko\
Letters4
Frequency rank#79,862
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « yako » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.yakotombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « workflow » (#79,860), « Wordsworth » (#79,859), « wilt » (#79,858). Parmi 198 lemmes en « Y », « yako » est au #79,862. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

yako is uncommon French at frequency #79,862 among 198 “Y” headwords, classed as aninterjection, transcribed \ja.ko\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

yako has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is yako, spelled Y-A-K-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mot prononcé pour exprimer la compassion, la condoléance, notamment aux proches lors d’un décès, ou à un malade pour lui souhaiter un bon rétablissement
  2. 2
    Dit à toute personne ayant subi un incident malencontreux en guise de réconfort.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how yako appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Cher papa, toute la famille est réunie pour te dire : « Yako ! ».
  2. – Tu pleures, tu as quoi ? – Tantie, c’est Mariama, elle m’a frappé ! – Eeeh ! Yako ! Mariama, faut plus faire ça, hein ! tu m’as compris ?

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "yako"?
"yako" is spelled Y-A-K-O. The IPA pronunciation is \ja.ko\.
What does "yako" mean?
As an interjection, "yako" means: Mot prononcé pour exprimer la compassion, la condoléance, notamment aux proches lors d’un décès, ou à un malade pour lui souhaiter un bon rétablissement
How do you pronounce "yako"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "yako" is \ja.ko\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "yako" come from?
"yako" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "yako", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list