Word.ws English Dictionary

yester-

/ˈjɛstə(ɹ)/

yester- prefix: belonging to the day preceding the present; next before the present.

Prefix

yester-

  1. (rare) Belonging to the day preceding the present; next before the present.
  2. Of former, earlier, or previous times.

Origin of yester-

From Middle English yester-, yister-, from Old English ġeostran-, ġiestran- (“previous day, prior day”), from Proto-West Germanic *gesteran, from Proto-Germanic *gesteraz (“yesterday”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰyés (“yesterday”). Compare Dutch gisteren, German gestern (“yesterday”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (gistradagis, “tomorrow”), Latin hesternus (“of yesterday”), Ancient Greek χθές (khthés, “yesterday”), Sanskrit ह्यस् (hyás, “yesterday”). More at yesterday.

Questions about yester-

What does yester- mean?
Yester- means belonging to the day preceding the present; next before the present.
What part of speech is yester-?
Yester- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce yester-?
Yester- is pronounced /ˈjɛstə(ɹ)/.

Words near yester- in the dictionary

  1. yessum
  2. yest
  3. yestaday
  4. yester
  5. yester month
  6. yester-
  7. yester-millennium
  8. yester-minute
  9. yester-month
  10. yester-morrow
  11. yester-morrows

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: yester- (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-yester-.wav.

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