yam
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yam¹
- /jæm/ US, UK
- [jeəm] ~ [jɛəm]
- /jam/ British, Northern England, Scotland
- /jæːm/ Australia
- [jeːm] ~ [jɛːm]
- /jɛm/ New Zealand
Rhymes with -æm
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Portuguese inhame and Spanish ñame, likely from Wolof ñàmbi (“cassava”) or a related word. The term was spelled yam as early as 1657.
noun yams
- Any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated.
- The edible, starchy, tuberous root of that plant, a tropical staple food. Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed-yams. But he thought that one could not begin too early. Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.
- A sweet potato; a tuber from the species Ipomoea batatas.
- A potato.
- An oca; a tuber from the species Oxalis tuberosa.
- Taro.
- An orange-brown colour, like the flesh of the yam.
yam²
- /jæm/ US, UK
- [jeəm] ~ [jɛəm]
- /jam/ British, Northern England, Scotland
- /jæːm/ Australia
- [jeːm] ~ [jɛːm]
- /jɛm/ New Zealand
Rhymes with -æm
Where it comes from
Alternative form of hjem. Likely caused by influence from Old Norse heim (“home, homewards”), the accusative form of heimr (“abode, world, land”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz. More at home.
noun yams
- Home.
yam³
- /jæm/ US, UK
- [jeəm] ~ [jɛəm]
- /jam/ British, Northern England, Scotland
- /jæːm/ Australia
- [jeːm] ~ [jɛːm]
- /jɛm/ New Zealand
Rhymes with -æm
verb
- Pronunciation spelling of am “Stay, jailer, stay, and hear my woe,” repeating again and again, very softly, the line at the end of each stanza, “I am not mad, I am not mad.” Except she sang it: “I yam not mad, I yam not mad.”
yam⁴
- /jæm/ US, UK
- [jeəm] ~ [jɛəm]
- /jam/ British, Northern England, Scotland
- /jæːm/ Australia
- [jeːm] ~ [jɛːm]
- /jɛm/ New Zealand
Rhymes with -æm
Where it comes from
Ultimately from Fula nyaamude (“to eat”) or a cognate Fula-Wolof term.
verb yams · yamming · yammed
- To eat. “If I was that snake I’d just open my jaw and yam that fool up in one bite!”
yam⁵
- /jæm/ US, UK
- [jeəm] ~ [jɛəm]
- /jam/ British, Northern England, Scotland
- /jæːm/ Australia
- [jeːm] ~ [jɛːm]
- /jɛm/ New Zealand
Rhymes with -æm
Where it comes from
Apparently a variation of jam (“dunk”, verb).
verb yams · yamming · yammed
- To dunk on; to beat humiliatingly. For quotations using this term, see Citations:yam.
Yam⁶
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Cantonese 任 (jam4).
proper noun Yams
- A surname.
Yam⁷
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Russian ямь (jamʹ) from Finnish Häme (“Tavastia”).
noun Yams
- person from Western or Southern Finland; Tavastian [...] they, doubtless, belong to the great Yam division of the Ugrian population, a division which contained the aborigines not only of St. Petersburg but of Novogorod as well — of St. Petersburg and Novogorod as well as much besides.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: yam plant, ren, yum, yin, guanyin, term, chief, financial, jen, lim, tsang, yim, iniama, true yam, chinese yam, yamaimo
Translations
Every language
noun any Dioscorea vine
| Español | ñame, ñamera |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 마 ma |
| 日本語 | 山芋 yamaimo, 自然薯 jinenjo, ヤマノイモ yamanoimo |
| 中文 | 山藥 /山药 shānyào |
| हिन्दी | रतालू ratālū, आलू ālū |
| Kiswahili | nduma, kiazi kikuu |
| Português | inhame |
| Français | igname |
| Deutsch | Yamswurzel, Yams |
| Italiano | igname |
| Română | ignamă |
| Русский | ямс jams |
| Tiếng Việt | khoai |
| العربية | يَام yām |
noun its edible root
| Español | ñame, ame, yame, ñangate |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | रतालू ratālū, आलू ālū |
| Kiswahili | nduma |
| Português | inhame |
| Tiếng Việt | sắn dây |
noun Finn (historical)
| Русский | ямь jamʹ |
|---|
Talk about this word "yam." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/yam. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. yam. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/yam "yam." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/yam.Cite this
@misc{yam_2026,
title = {yam},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/yam},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
