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
-
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:
Revolut co-founder Nik Storonsky allegedly went behind his yacht broker’s back to avoid paying around $20 million in commission.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
The entrepreneur has a $3.8 million 55-foot Valhalla sport yacht powered by four 600-hp engines, which have turned the roughly 60-mile trip between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Bimini in the Bahamas into a lunchtime jaunt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Coast Guard tracked Fischer to his yacht and took him into custody off the coast of New Jersey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Several hundred protesters shouted slogans hostile to US policies in the Middle East and tried to get close to the yacht, guarded by masked police officers, local media footage showed.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
The Ray was a sleek yacht with a small crew.
From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi
The public official is accused of lodging without permission on two docked yachts that did not belong to her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Later, the sessions for 1977’s “London Town” were recorded in a studio they built in one of three yachts anchored off the coast of the Virgin Islands.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
After all, there’s typically little impact to ordinary consumers or the economy at large if prices for yachts increase.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 13, 2026
Caline Basroon, a New York-based travel adviser with Protravel International, has booked multiple clients on hotel-branded yachts this summer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
It matched what was painted on the yachts in the marina, on the front of the palace, and on the arms of the statues.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
All last summer Queen & Daughter yachted and toured in Scandinavia.
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 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
He yachted in summer and sat with equally well-bred companions in the posh Carlton Club in winter.
From Time Magazine Archive
Why, he's dined at the White House, and lunched and motored and yachted with royalties, and lectured before the D.A.R.'s themselves!
From A Woman Named Smith by Marie Conway Oemler
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
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
While the furniture and housing industries also use old-growth teak, they have generally found it easier to substitute plantation teak than the yachting industry, he adds.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
Along the way, he wrote crime novels focused on the Orange County yachting set, upper-crust dog show fans, Palm Springs country clubs, the America’s Cup, and the Nobel Prize.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2025
Togged up women and gentlemen in yachting costume and all very rich and important looking.
From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
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.
