yacht
Americannoun
-
yachts
plural
verb (used without object)
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yachts,
present (3rd person singular)
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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:
Cecil Wright & Partners, a luxury yacht broker, filed the legal action in London’s High Court over Storonsky’s acquisition of Nixie, a 102-meter vessel with four terraces and an Indian teak deck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 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
The frigate fired warning shots as Jane and Alan Kelvey sailed their yacht on what Russia's defence ministry said had been a "dangerous approach".
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 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
But I was curious, because when w ere we ever going to get the chance to sail around the Ligurian Sea on some bloke’s private yacht?
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
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
Gibson, from Penbryn Nant, in Ruthin, Denbighshire, lied that he had been worth hundreds of millions of pounds, had served in the Special Boat Service, and owned yachts.
From BBC ● 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
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
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
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 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
It didn't occasion any loud comments from nobility or clergy when the King yachted to Yugoslavia with Mrs. Simpson.
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 pair have been photographed yachting in St. Tropez, holding hands in London and attending the premiere of the “Legally Blonde” prequel “Elle.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
A yachting incident intensified the rivalry between Turner and Murdoch in 1983 when a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with Turner's in the Sydney-Hobart race, sinking Turner's schooner.
From Barron's ● May 6, 2026
Previous excuses for failing to file have included being up a mountain or yachting around the world.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2026
The two were photographed yachting together in the Pacific off El Salvador’s coast.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2024
But Coyotito—he was the one—he wore a blue sailor suit from the United States and a little yachting cap such as Kino had seen once when a pleasure boat put into the estuary.
From "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
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.
