yaw

/jɔː/

yaw noun: the rotation of an aircraft, ship, or missile about its vertical axis so as to cause the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, ship, or missile to deviate from the flight line or heading in its horizontal plane.

Noun (1)

yaw (countable and uncountable, plural yaws)

The rotation of an aircraft, ship, or missile about its vertical axis so as to cause the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, ship, or missile to deviate from the flight line or heading in its horizontal plane.
The angle between the longitudinal axis of a projectile at any moment and the tangent to the trajectory in the corresponding point of flight of the projectile.
A vessel's motion rotating about the vertical axis, so the bow yaws from side to side; a characteristic of unsteadiness.
The extent of yawing; the rotation angle about the vertical axis.
- the yaw of an aircraft

Verb

yaw (third-person singular simple present yaws, present participle yawing, simple past and past participle yawed)

(intransitive) To turn about the vertical axis while maintaining course.
(intransitive) To swerve off course to port or starboard.
(intransitive) To steer badly, zigzagging back and forth across the intended course of a boat; to go out of the line of course.
- Just as he would lay the ship's course, all yawing being out of the question.1853–1864, James Russell Lowell, “(please specify the page)”, in Fireside Travels, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1864, →OCLC
(intransitive) To rise in blisters, breaking in white froth, as cane juice in the clarifiers in sugar works.

Noun (2)

yaw (plural yaws)

A single tumor in the disease called yaws.
- Sometimes there remains one large Yaw, high and knobbed, red and moist; this is called the master Yaw; […]1770, William Northcote, The Marine Practice of Physic and Surgery, page 408

Proper noun capitalized: Yaw

Yaw (plural Yaws)

A surname.

yaw meaning in Tamil and Urdu

yaw in Tamil

யாஸ் புண், யா சுழற்சி, விமானம்

yaw in Urdu

گھومنا, راہ سے ہٹنا

Forms of yaw

Noun
plural	yaws
Verb
third-person singular present	yaws
present participle	yawing
past participle	yawed
past	yawed
Proper noun
plural	Yaws

Plural of yaw: yaws

Origin of yaw

Unknown, first attested in the mid-16th century. Perhaps related to yar (“quick, agile”), or alternatively from Old Norse jaga (“to chase, drive, move back and forth”), from Middle Low German jagen (“to hunt, chase, pursue”), from Old Saxon *jagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *jagōn, from Proto-Germanic *jakkōną (“to hunt”).

Words formed from yaw

Phrases with yaw

Words that rhyme with yaw

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about yaw

What does yaw mean?: Yaw means the rotation of an aircraft, ship, or missile about its vertical axis so as to cause the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, ship, or missile to deviate from the flight line or heading in its horizontal plane.
What is yaw in Tamil?: Yaw in Tamil is யாஸ் புண், யா சுழற்சி, விமானம். See Yaw meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is yaw?: Yaw can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce yaw?: Yaw is pronounced /jɔː/.
What is the plural of yaw?: The plural of yaw is yaws.

Words near yaw in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: yaw (page history and authors); Yaw (page history and authors); yaw (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); yaw (Urdu Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-yaw.ogg.

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