Yeats

American  

[yeyts] / yeɪts /

noun

1. William Butler, 1865–1939, Irish poet, dramatist, and essayist: Nobel Prize 1923.

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Yeats British  

/ jeɪts /

noun

1. Jack Butler. 1871–1957, Irish painter

2. his brother W ( illiam ) B ( utler ). 1865–1939, Irish poet and dramatist. His collections of verse include Responsibilities (1914), The Tower (1928), and The Winding Stair (1929). Among his plays are The Countess Cathleen (1892) and Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902); he was a founder of the Irish National Theatre Company at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1923

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Other Word Forms

• Yeatsian adjective

Example Sentences

No horse aged 10 or above has won the race since 2014, while in 2022 Noble Yeats bucked another trend by becoming the first seven-year-old to win the race since Bogskar in 1940.

From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026

Andy Halliday then blasted the Bantams ahead before Mark Yeats slotted a fourth to inflict a shock defeat on Jose Mourinho's side.

From BBC • Jan. 10, 2026

Heaney grieves the violence, memorializing its complexity and horror in a poem that can stand with Yeats and Auden.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

As the poet William Butler Yeats observed after the end of the First World War, the center is not holding, while the best lack all conviction.

From Salon • Nov. 10, 2025

But I, being poor, have only my dreams, thought Joseph, remembering the Yeats poem.

From "The Marvels" by Brian Selznick