yew

¹ American  

[yoo] / yu /

noun

1. any of several evergreen, coniferous trees and shrubs of the genera Taxus and Torreya, constituting the family Taxaceae, of the Old World, North America, and Japan, having needlelike or scalelike foliage and seeds enclosed in a fleshy aril.

2. the fine-grained, elastic wood of any of these trees.

3. an archer's bow made of this wood.

4. this tree or its branches as a symbol of sorrow, death, or resurrection.

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yew ² American  

[yoo, yoo] / yu, yʊ /

pronoun

Eye Dialect.

1. you.

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yew British  

/ juː /

noun

1. any coniferous tree of the genus Taxus, of the Old World and North America, esp T. baccata, having flattened needle-like leaves, fine-grained elastic wood, and solitary seeds with a red waxy aril resembling berries: family Taxaceae

2. the wood of any of these trees, used to make bows for archery

3. archery a bow made of yew

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Etymology

Origin of yew

before 900; Middle English ew ( e ), Old English ēow, ī ( o ) w; cognate with Old High German īga, īwa ( Middle High German īwe, German Eibe ), Old Norse ýr, MIr eó yew ( Old Irish: stem, shaft), Welsh ywen yew tree, Russian íva willow

Explanation

Use the noun yew when you're talking about the medium-sized evergreen that has flat needles and small red berries. This ancient and durable tree confirms the theory that the longer you hang around English, the more homophones — words that sound the same though they're spelled differently — you'll pick up. There are several of these in the case of yew. Curious thing is, all four words in English with this pronunciation (yew, ewe, you, and u) appeared before the 12th century. Guess we just like to make the sound.

Example Sentences

In 1999, Lee Kuan Yew, widely seen as the founding father of modern Singapore, famously credited air-conditioning with having "changed the lives of people in tropical regions" by enabling work indoors despite the heat outside.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026

A group of guests rent out a mansion called Yew Tree House on New Year’s Eve to celebrate the birthday of Benjamin, who is found dead in his bed the next morning.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

“It changed the nature of civilization by making development possible in the tropics,” said Singapore’s founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, in a 1990s interview.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 15, 2025

Saki Yew, who was on RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2024, said she'd had "no communication and no answer" on her fee.

From BBC • Oct. 22, 2025

I pushed Michael Yew away from the binoculars and took a look.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan