yes
Americanadverb
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(used to express affirmation or assent or to mark the addition of something emphasizing and amplifying a previous statement).
Do you want that? Yes, I do.
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(used to express an emphatic contradiction of a previously negative statement or command).
Don't do that! Oh, yes I will!
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(used, usually interrogatively, to express hesitation, uncertainty, curiosity, etc.).
“Yes?” he said as he opened the door. That was a marvelous show! Yes?
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(used to express polite or minimal interest or attention.)
noun
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yeses
plural
verb (used with object)
interjection
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used to express acknowledgment, affirmation, consent, agreement, or approval or to answer when one is addressed
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used, often with interrogative intonation, to signal someone to speak or keep speaking, enter a room, or do something
noun
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an answer or vote of yes
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(often plural) a person who votes in the affirmative
Usage
Plural word for yes The plural form of yes is either yeses or yesses, but yeses is more widely used. The plurals of several other singular words that end in -s are also formed the same way, such as bus/buses/busses, gas/gases/gasses, and lotus/lotuses/lotusses. In some instances, particularly informally, the plural form of yes is written with an apostrophe, as in yes's. This is not considered standard, but it may be easier to understand in some contexts because many people are unfamiliar with the plural form of yes. The word yes is only pluralized when it is used as a noun rather than in its more common use as an adverb. The word yes as a noun means "an answer or vote of yes" or "a person who votes in the affirmative," as in The noes outnumbered the yeses.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of yes
First recorded before 900; Middle English yes, yis, Old English gēse (adverb and noun), probably equivalent to gēa yea + sī “be it” (present subjunctive singular of bēon “to be”; see be)
Explanation
Yes is a confirmation or an affirmative — a positive reply. When you say yes to a friend's invitation to a party, it means you'll be there. There's no more positive word in the English language: You use yes to agree, to confirm, or to answer positively. It works best of all to express uninhibited enthusiasm like when you get great news and yell it, maybe even closing your eyes in joy while you say it. Yes comes from the Old English gise, or so be it.
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:
He said yes, if funding could be found.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
From the moment that Kiffin touched down in Baton Rouge, the nation’s top transfers—from Ohio State, Oregon and, yes, Ole Miss—leapt into the portal and made a beeline for LSU.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
"It was really good of them to say yes," Matt said, "as they've just been touring and releasing their own merch recently too".
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
Asked whether Greece is better prepared today than in previous years, the senior researcher replied: "I want to believe the answer is yes," though he stressed that much work remains to be done.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
“Oh yes, plenty! Once the babies were asleep.”
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
With three yeses, Mawhinney progressed to the next stage and remains in with a chance of winning the cash prize.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
But the reality is that celebrating these special days is expensive — and seven yeses add up pretty quickly.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
Speculations have varied from hard yeses to a rainbow of bargaining; maybe in 2016, but definitely not in 2020 or 2024.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2025
As an image of the final object — Verner Panton’s 1990s Vilbert chair — was added atop the pile of yeses, Antonelli appraised the victors and nodded.
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2024
Hesitations're yeses or nos if the questioner already knows the answer.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
To his family, Disney was a genius to be pampered; to his business associates, he was the boss to be yessed.
From Time Magazine Archive
As this remark, adequately yessed, had been on the tip of Mr. Gilbert's tongue, he could not be blamed for rather abruptly changing the subject.
From The Beautiful and Damned by Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott)
But this was no New Deal yessing, for banishing of tax exemption would mean a better market for ordinary corporate bond issues I. B. A. members underwrite.
From Time Magazine Archive
His character flaws were widely discussed: his stubbornness, his vanity, his occasional vindictiveness, his habit of yessing callers just to be amiable.
From Time Magazine Archive
No yessing Hearstling, he some-times lectures Mr. Hearst as if he were a small boy.
From Time Magazine Archive
My grandfather had been wrong about yessing them to death and destruction or else things had changed too much since his day.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
I started yessing them the next day and it began beautifully.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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.
