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
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:
I am a lifelong Democrat, as are many of my friends and, yes, family.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
If you answered yes to any of these questions, we have a challenge for you!
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2026
The lesson here is never say yes when you want to say no.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
When questioned about her assertion the fire could be one of the largest in recent memory in England, she said: "It may well be, yes."
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
A part of him, a familiar part, wanted to say that yes, it was a problem.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
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
Kentridge brings it to America thirsting for even less good yeses and noes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2025
The primary school teacher, who comes from Bedford and now lives in Leeds, received four "yeses" from the judges during episode six of this series.
From BBC ● May 25, 2024
All day, the yeses and noes had been swirling inside her, faster, faster, until she felt dizzy with indecision.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
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)
No yessing Hearstling, he some-times lectures Mr. Hearst as if he were a small boy.
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
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
I started yessing them the next day and it began beautifully.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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
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.
