Nouns That Start With Y

44 words Words by letter Checked 9 Oct 2026

These nouns that start with Y come from a standard English dictionary used for word games, ranked by how often each word is used in everyday writing. There are 44 nouns starting with Y on this page. The 44 most common come first, each with a short meaning, followed by shorter, longer and easier picks and a filter for any ending or length.

Y holds 44 nouns. Year, yesterday and youth lead the list, so time and age are a clear theme.

There are some fun concrete words too. Yak is an animal, yacht is a boat with an odd silent ch, and yarn, yeast and yogurt are things you can find at home. Yardstick and yearbook are compounds that split neatly into two short words, which helps new spellers.

Nouns starting with Y: 44
Most used: year
Longest common one: yesterday 9 letters

Most common nouns that start with Y

Ranked by how often the word appears in English text. "Type" is the word's main part of speech.

#	Word	Meaning	Type
1	year	a period of time containing 365 (or 366) days	noun
2	years	a late time of life	noun
3	yes	an affirmative	noun
4	yesterday	the day immediately before today	noun
5	youth	a young person (especially a young man or boy)	noun
6	yard	a unit of length equal to 3 feet	noun
7	yea	an affirmative	noun
8	yoga	no short meaning listed	noun
9	yelling	uttering a loud inarticulate cry as of pain or excitement	noun
10	yay	a branch of the Tai languages	noun
11	yang	the bright positive masculine principle in Chinese dualistic cosmology	noun
12	yearly	a reference book that is published regularly once every year	noun
13	yahoo	a person who is not very intelligent or interested in culture	noun
14	yacht	an expensive vessel propelled by sail or power and used for cruising or racing	noun
15	yen	a yearning for something or to do something	noun
16	yuan	the basic unit of money in China	noun
17	yeast	a commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells	noun
18	yogurt	a custard-like food made from curdled milk	noun
19	yarn	the act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events	noun
20	yearbook	a book published annually by the graduating class of a high school or college usually containing photographs...	noun
21	yin	the dark negative feminine principle in Chinese dualistic cosmology	noun
22	youngster	a young person of either sex	noun
23	yearning	prolonged unfulfilled desire or need	noun
24	yogi	United States baseball player (born 1925)	noun
25	yak	noisy talk	noun
26	yoke	fabric comprising a fitted part at the top of a garment	noun
27	yam	edible tuber of any of several yams	noun
28	yolk	the yellow spherical part of an egg that is surrounded by the albumen	noun
29	yew	wood of a yew	noun
30	yeti	a large hairy humanoid creature said to live in the Himalayas	noun
31	yoghurt	a custard-like food made from curdled milk	noun
32	yank	an American who lives in the North (especially during the American Civil War)	noun
33	yip	a sharp high-pitched cry (especially by a dog)	noun
34	yardage	distance measured in the aggregate number of yards	noun
35	yachting	water travel for pleasure	noun
36	yeoman	officer in the (ceremonial) bodyguard of the British monarch	noun
37	yule	period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6	noun
38	yardstick	a measure or standard used for comparison	noun
39	yearling	a young child	noun
40	yeshiva	no short meaning listed	noun
41	yucca	any of several evergreen plants of the genus Yucca having usually tall stout stems and a terminal cluster of...	noun
42	yore	time long past	noun
43	yesteryear	the time that has elapsed	noun
44	yarrow	ubiquitous strong-scented mat-forming Eurasian herb of wasteland, hedgerow or pasture having narrow serrate...	noun

Positive nouns that start with Y

Short nouns that start with Y

year
years
yes
youth
yard
yea
yoga
yay
yang
yahoo
yacht
yen
yuan
yeast
yarn
yin
yogi
yak
yoke
yam
yolk
yew
yeti
yank
yip
yule
yucca
yore

Long nouns that start with Y

yesteryear

Filter all 44 nouns that start with Y

Narrow the full list by ending, letters inside and length. The list updates as you type.

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Questions people ask

How many nouns start with Y?

This list has 44 nouns starting with Y, taken from a standard word-game dictionary and limited to words that appear in real English text.

What are the most common nouns that start with Y?

year, years, yes, yesterday, youth, yard, yea, yoga are the most used in everyday English.

What are some long nouns that start with Y?

yesterday, youngster, yardstick, yesteryear.

What are easy nouns that start with Y for kids?

year, years, yes, youth, yard are short, everyday examples.

Source: the ENABLE word list (a public-domain dictionary used for word games), ranked by how often each word appears in English text (the open wordfreq project), with short meanings from Princeton WordNet. Offensive words are left out.

See every letter on one page: nouns A to Z