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ya

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ya¹

  • /jə/

Rhymes with -ə

Where it comes from

Reduced form of you. Compare Dutch je, reduced/unstressed form of jij (“you”).

pronoun

  1. nonstandard Nonstandard spelling of you But you don't really care for music, do ya?

ya²

  • /jɑː/

Rhymes with -ɑː

Where it comes from

Apparently from German ja and cognates in other Germanic languages; related to English yeah.

interjection

  1. informal Yeah; yes.

ya³

  • /ˈjɑː/ UK, West Country
  • /ˈjɐ/ UK, West Country

Rhymes with -ɑː, -ɐ

Where it comes from

From Middle English ya, from Old English ġēa, iā (“yea, yes”). More at yea.

adverb yaa · yaw · yah · yha

  1. Northern England, Scotland, UK, West Country, dialectal, not comparable yea; yes 'Ya, wilt thou!' said Wallace, 'then tak thee that, […]'

ya⁴

Where it comes from

Variation of hyah.

interjection

  1. informal Go. (Spoken to horses and cattle.)

ya⁵

determiner

  1. nonstandard Nonstandard spelling of your

ya⁶

Where it comes from

From Russian я (ja).

noun yas

  1. A letter of the Cyrillic alphabet: Я, я.

ya⁷

  • /jɑ/
  • [jɑː˨˦]

Where it comes from

From Malay ya, from Dutch ja (and ultimately Proto-Germanic *ja). Reinforced by informal variants of yes in English (e.g., yeah). Doublet of yes.

interjection yeah · yea · yah

  1. Malaysia, Singapore, informal Yes, yeah (used to express affirmation)

particle yeah · yea · yah

  1. Manglish, Singlish Used to form a confirmation-seeking tag question, expecting an affirmative response. What about yourself Mr Chee, never look a day older, you'll see the rest of us six feet under… Really you look very well. I heard you went for new treatment in Switzerland ya?…

YA⁸

noun

  1. abbreviation, especially, initialism Initialism of young adult 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Gameshttps://web.archive.org/web/20120323195428/http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/ While Collins does include a love triangle, a coming-of-age story, and other YA-friendly elements in the mix, they serve as a Trojan horse to smuggle
  2. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of youth authority

Ya⁹

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Tamil யா (yā). This surname is the 5ᵗʰ most common surname in Tamil Nadu.

proper noun Yas

  1. A surname from Tamil.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: dong, hsiang, pe, yes, yep, yup, yea, yah, aye, affirmative, sure, certainly, of course, right, roger, uh-huh

Translations

Every language

noun a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet "Я/я"

Русскийя ja

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Cite this
MLA

"ya." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ya. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

ya. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ya

Chicago

"ya." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ya.

BibTeX
@misc{ya_2026,
  title = {ya},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ya},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}