yacht
Americannoun
-
yachts
plural
verb (used without object)
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yachts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
yachted,
past participle, past
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yachting
present participle
noun
-
a vessel propelled by sail or power, used esp for pleasure cruising, racing, etc
-
short for sand yacht ice yacht
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
yachtsimple
-
yachtssimple
-
have yachtedperfect
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has yachtedperfect
-
am yachtingprogressive
-
are yachtingprogressive
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is yachtingprogressive
-
have been yachtingperfect progressive
-
has been yachtingperfect progressive
Past
-
yachtedsimple
-
had yachtedperfect
-
was yachtingprogressive
-
were yachtingprogressive
-
had been yachtingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of yacht
1550–60; < early Dutch jaght, short for jaghtschip hunting ship, equivalent to Dutch jacht hunt (derivative of jagen to hunt) + schip ship 1
Compare meaning
How does yacht compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A yacht is an upscale boat — often a sailboat — that is used for cruising or racing. If you're on a cargo ship, you're probably at work; if you're on a yacht, it's probably your day off. While today a yacht is usually a pleasure vessel, and associated with wealth and recreation, its origins are anything but: the word yacht comes from the early modern Dutch jaghtschip, which referred to “a fast pirate ship,” and jacht meant “hunting.” You won’t find many yachts doing any hunting today — but you might find one cruising around the bay or parked at the yacht club. Yacht can also be a verb meaning to travel in a yacht.
Vocabulary lists containing yacht
Seas The Day: Words That Shore Are Beachy
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for August 17–August 23, 2024
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for February 15–February 21, 2026
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She even sought out McDonald, another yacht rock OG, for a collab that didn’t end up making the LP, which expanded beyond her original premise as her listening broadened along with her cooking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
The yacht must also be loaded with boxes of food and supplies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
On a recent Friday evening at a Westchester yacht club, roughly a dozen choppers flew by in a two-hour stretch as members sipped rum cocktails on a waterside deck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The yacht lost all power and steering after making contact with a fish farm in Red Bay, in 60 knots of wind, causing it to become trapped.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
The engines of the yacht cut off and its tail end begins to swing around so that the boat can bump lengthwise against the building.
From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner
Over the years, however, Xu's taste for yachts and luxury clashed with President Xi Jinping's crackdown on extreme wealth as Beijing tightened its watch over corruption within the financial sector.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Newly enriched Americans are bound to spend some of their windfall on new cars, yachts, houses and the like.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
He has appeared in countless videos, flaunting an ultra-luxurious lifestyle of fast cars, private jets, and yachts.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Nearby were a golf club, a marina for yachts and hotels run by Sheraton and Spain’s Melia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Far downstream, twinkling lights began to appear at the portholes of some of the larger yachts anchored near the finish line.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
He has yachted from blazing Syria to arctic Spitsbergen.
From Time Magazine Archive
All last summer Queen & Daughter yachted and toured in Scandinavia.
From Time Magazine Archive
She may repeat the furore created when King George's mother, Denmark's radiant Alexandra, was similarly yachted to Britain to marry the future Edward VII.
From Time Magazine Archive
It didn't occasion any loud comments from nobility or clergy when the King yachted to Yugoslavia with Mrs. Simpson.
From Time Magazine Archive
She yachted, and danced, and canoed, and flew, all that summer.
From In Apple-Blossom Time A Fairy-Tale to Date by Clara Louise Burnham
The mustached southerner, yachting enthusiast and philanthropist, whose empire also included sports clubs, had been suffering from the degenerative disease Lewy Body Dementia.
From Barron's ● May 6, 2026
The Cryptolocker mastermind was eventually identified as Evgeniy Bogachev, a Russian national known to be fond of luxury cars and yachting on the Black Sea.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
In the interim, Ford pursued other interests, including yachting, a hobby she picked in 2023 that birthed ideas for Yacht Yoga and other female empowerment gatherings of the Yacht Girls.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026
It isn’t hard to think that Jeff Bezos left his role as Amazon.com’s CEO to enjoy a slower life filled with yachting and celebrity parties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 23, 2025
There was a small picture of Gatsby, also in yachting costume, on the bureau--Gatsby with his head thrown back defiantly--taken apparently when he was about eighteen.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
