yam
[jeəm] ~ [jɛəm]UK/jæm/
yam noun: any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated. Also the pronunciation spelling of am.
Noun (1)
yam (plural yams)
- Any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated.
- The edible, starchy, tuberous root of that plant, a tropical staple food.
- Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed-yams. But he thought that one could not begin too early. Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.1958 June 17, Chinua Achebe, chapter 4, in Things Fall Apart, New York, N.Y.: Astor-Honor, published 1959, →OCLC, part 1, page 34
- A sweet potato; a tuber from the species Ipomoea batatas.
- A potato.
- An oca; a tuber from the species Oxalis tuberosa.
- Taro.
- An orange-brown colour, like the flesh of the yam.
Noun (2)
yam (plural yams)
- Home.
Verb (1)
yam (third-person singular simple present yams, present participle yamming, simple past and past participle yammed)
- To eat.
- “If I was that snake I’d just open my jaw and yam that fool up in one bite!”2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 78
Verb (2)
yam (third-person singular simple present yams, present participle yamming, simple past and past participle yammed)
- To dunk on; to beat humiliatingly.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:yam.
Proper noun capitalized: Yam
Yam (plural Yams)
- A surname.
Also used as
yam is also the pronunciation spelling of am.
yam meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
yam in Hindi
- any Dioscorea vine
- रतालू ratālū, आलू ālū
- its edible root
- रतालू ratālū, आलू ālū
yam in Bengali
- ইয়াম, ইয়ামের কাছে
yam in Malayalam
- any Dioscorea vine
- കാച്ചിൽ kāccil
- its edible root
- കാച്ചിൽ kāccil
yam in Kannada
- ಯಾಮ್
More languagesFewer languages
- yam in Punjabi
- ਯਾਮ, ਯੰਮ
- yam in Assamese
- কাঠ আলু kath alu
- yam in Nepali
- याम, याम्
- yam in Tagalog
- tugi
- yam in Arabic
- يَام yām
- yam in Malay
- ubi, keladi
- yam in Indonesian
- ubi
- yam in Thai
- มัน man, สกุลกลอย sàgun gloi, มันเสา man-sǎo, ฮ่วยซัว hûay sua
- yam in Vietnamese
- khoai, sắn dây
- yam in Myanmar
- ပီလောပီနံ pilau:pinam
Examples of yam in a sentence
- JJ served a bass crudo with yam, Birdeye chile, and cumin puff rice.
- Hard food, such as yams, coco and dasheen, came from Country, and sometimes meat too.
- I was lucky with this one, as my roommate's girlfriend left me the aforementioned yams.
Forms of yam
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | yams |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | yams |
| present participle | yamming |
| past participle | yammed |
| past | yammed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Yams |
Origin of yam
Borrowed from Portuguese inhame and Spanish ñame, likely from Wolof ñàmbi (“cassava”) or a related word. The term was spelled yam as early as 1657.
Alternative form of hjem. Likely caused by influence from Old Norse heim (“home, homewards”), the accusative form of heimr (“abode, world, land”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz. More at home.
Ultimately from Fula nyaamude (“to eat”) or a cognate Fula-Wolof term.
Words formed from yam
- aerial yam
- air yam
- afoo yam
- betel yam
- bitter yam
- cheeky yam
- Chinese yam
- common yam
- cush-cush yam
- elephant foot yam
- elephant yam
- fiveleaf yam
- Foochow yam
- fourleaf yam
- garnet yam
- greater yam
- Indian three-leaf yam
- Indian yam
- intoxicating yam
- Japanese mountain yam
- Japanese yam
- jewel yam
- lesser yam
- Mexican yam bean
- Mexican yam
- mountain yam
- negro yam
- New Zealand yam
- Okinawan yam
- parsnip yam
- potato yam
- pounded yam
- purple yam
- seven-lobed yam
- thorny yam
- toco for yam
- tropical yam
- true yam
- water yam
- white yam
- wild yam
- winged yam
- yam bean
- yamberry
- yam cake
- yam daisy
- yamless
- yamlike
- yampee
- yam stick
- yellow yam
Phrases with yam
Words that rhyme with yam
47 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about yam
- What does yam mean?
- Yam means any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated.
- What is yam in Hindi?
- Yam in Hindi is रतालू (ratālū), आलू (ālū). See Yam meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is yam?
- Yam can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce yam?
- Yam is pronounced /jæm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of yam?
- The plural of yam is yams.
Words near yam in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: yam (page history and authors); Yam (page history and authors); yam (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yam (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yam (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yam (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-yam.ogg.
Cite this entry: “yam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.