Word.ws English Dictionary

yaws

/ˈjɔːz/

yaws noun: a contagious tropical disease, caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue, characterized by yellowish or reddish tumors, which often resemble berries. Also the third-person singular simple present indicative of yaw.

yaws: a contagious tropical disease, caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue, characterized by...
Image: Study authors, except for first five macro photographs, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

yaws (uncountable)

  1. A contagious tropical disease, caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue, characterized by yellowish or reddish tumors, which often resemble berries.
    • Other threats came from organisms co-evolving with humans, including tapeworms and such spirochaetes as Treponema, the agent of syphilis, and the similar skin infection, yaws.1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 16
    Synonyms:
    frambesia, parangi, pian

Proper noun capitalized: Yaws

Yaws

  1. (plural) plural of Yaw

Also used as

yaws is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of yaw.

yaws is also the plural of yaw.

yaws meaning in Hindi, Malay and Indonesian

yaws in Hindi

a contagious tropical disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue
गोंडी रोग goṇḍī rog, माड़िया रोग māṛiyā rog

yaws in Malay

a contagious tropical disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue
puru

yaws in Indonesian

a contagious tropical disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue
puru, patek, frambusia

Synonyms of yaws

Origin of yaws

Uncertain. Attested since the 1670s, perhaps from an English creole (or other language) of the Caribbean.

Inflected forms.

Words formed from yaws

Words that rhyme with yaws

7 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about yaws

What does yaws mean?
Yaws means a contagious tropical disease, caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue, characterized by yellowish or reddish tumors, which often resemble berries.
What is yaws in Hindi?
Yaws in Hindi is गोंडी रोग (goṇḍī rog), माड़िया रोग (māṛiyā rog). See Yaws meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is yaws?
Yaws can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce yaws?
Yaws is pronounced /ˈjɔːz/.

Words near yaws in the dictionary

  1. yawper
  2. yawpers
  3. yawping
  4. yawpings
  5. yawps
  6. yaws
  7. Yawuru
  8. yawweed
  9. yawy
  10. yaxche
  11. Yaxley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: yaws (page history and authors); Yaws (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-yaws.wav.

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