Word.ws English Dictionary

Yanky

Yanky is the archaic form of Yankee.

Meaning of Yankee

Noun

Yankee (plural Yankees)

  1. (Southern US) A native or inhabitant of the northern United States.
    • […]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, chapter XXXIV, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859...
  2. (Northern-US, Southern US) A native or inhabitant of New England.
  3. (French, Louisiana) An anglo, someone without French ancestry; a native or inhabitant of the rest of the United States.
  4. (Commonwealth, derogatory, sometimes) A native or inhabitant of the United States in general.
    • ...in a short time, a kind of infectious mirth and pride in their bargains took possession of the place, and every one bought something, holding out their purchases to view, and praising them in the words and phraseology of the young yankees, who, finding their own importance, were not slow to...1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 194
  5. (Southern US, derogatory, historical, often) Any individual associated with the Union; that is, the United States federal government, during the American Civil War.
  6. A player for the New York Yankees.

See all 10 meanings of yankee

Forms of Yanky

pluralYankies

Questions about Yanky

What is Yanky the archaic form of?
Yanky is the archaic form of Yankee.

Words near Yanky in the dictionary

  1. Yanktonai
  2. Yanktonais
  3. Yanktons
  4. Yankuntjatjarra
  5. Yankunytjatjara
  6. Yanky
  7. Yanliang
  8. Yanling
  9. Yannathan
  10. Yannergee
  11. Yanni

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Yanky (page history and authors); Yankee (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “Yanky.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yanky. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.