Word.ws English Dictionary

yesteryear

Syllables: yes·ter·yearUK/ˈjɛstəjɪə//ˈjɛstəɹˌjɪ(ə)ɹ/

yesteryear noun: past years; time gone by; yore.

Noun

yesteryear (countable and uncountable, plural yesteryears)

  1. (poetic) Past years; time gone by; yore.
    • To be old here, is to be respectable, and time-honored is the epithet most coveted. You see no sign of the doings of yesterday or yesteryear: the new is careful of obtruding itself, and comes into the world under matronage of the old.1840 August 2, George H[enry] Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts in Europe. […], New York, N.Y.: Wiley and Putnam, published 1846, page 5
    • It seems to me that it isn't these little acts and little connexions we make in our lives that matter so very much. They pass away, and where are they? Where…Where are the snows of yesteryear?1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 5, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Gutenberg edition, [Florence, Italy]: [ […] Tipografia Giuntina, […]], →OCLC; republished as Lady Chatterley’s Lover (eBook...
    Synonyms:
    foretime
  2. (rare) Last year.

Adverb

yesteryear (not comparable)

  1. (poetic) In past years.
    • Was it yesteryear or centuries ago that the Orient Express thundered over that narrow, glistening channel and linked the Golden Horn to the Seine?1917 April, Fullerton L[eonard] Waldo, “Embattled Serbia”, in The Forum, volume LVII, New York, N.Y.: The Forum Publishing Company […], section I, page 448
    • To believe in God was to Moroni’s credit. But to believe in the Son of God, a Being who had only been prophesied about and whose birth was still in the future, is truly remarkable. It is similar to those who lived yesteryear (and are living today) after the coming of Christ, who believed (and who...1992, V. James Lovalvo, “Role Models of Righteousness in the Book of Mormon”, in James Van Treese, editor, Book of Mormon Reflections: “Truth in Perspective”, Salt Lake City, Ut.: Northwest...

yesteryear meaning in Tamil, Sanskrit, Persian and Vietnamese

yesteryear in Tamil

சென்ற ஆண்டு, சென்ற ஆண்டில்

yesteryear in Sanskrit

last year — see also last year
परुत् parut

yesteryear in Persian

last year — see also last year
دیسال disâl

yesteryear in Vietnamese

times gone by
xưa, thời xưa, ngày xưa
More languagesFewer languages
Kashmiri
پَرُس parus

Examples of yesteryear in a sentence

  • But make no mistake, if Parker and Salmon have their way, boiler suits are the workwear of yesteryear at Babcock.1994 November 5, Ross Tieman, “Yachtsmen on a long-term voyage to recovery”, in The Times, number 65,104, London, page 25:
  • After passing Starcross and then the new […] Marsh Barton station, we soon arrive at the delightful Exeter St Davids station, which still retains much of its charm and GWR character of yesteryear.2023 August 23, Pip Dunn, “The last bastion of the HST 'Castles'”, in RAIL, number 990, page 49:
  • It is similar to those who lived yesteryear (and are living today) after the coming of Christ, who believed (and who do believe) in Him, although He has never been seen in person.1992, V. James Lovalvo, “Role Models of Righteousness in the Book of Mormon”, in James Van Treese, editor, Book of Mormon Reflections...
  • What lives there today provides a clue as to what lived here yesteryear.2005, James Lazell, “Ways of Looking at Diversity”, in Island: Fact and Theory in Nature, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press...

All 17 example sentences with yesteryear

Synonyms of yesteryear

Forms of yesteryear

pluralyesteryears
alternative formyester-year

Origin of yesteryear

From yester- + year.

Words formed from yesteryear

Questions about yesteryear

What does yesteryear mean?
Yesteryear means past years; time gone by; yore.
What is yesteryear in Tamil?
Yesteryear in Tamil is சென்ற ஆண்டு, சென்ற ஆண்டில். See Yesteryear meaning in Tamil.
How do you use yesteryear in a sentence?
But make no mistake, if Parker and Salmon have their way, boiler suits are the workwear of yesteryear at Babcock.
What part of speech is yesteryear?
Yesteryear can be a noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce yesteryear?
Yesteryear is pronounced /ˈjɛstəjɪə/ (UK).
What is the plural of yesteryear?
The plural of yesteryear is yesteryears.

Words near yesteryear in the dictionary

  1. yestertech
  2. yestertide
  3. yestertime
  4. yestertimes
  5. yesterweek
  6. yesteryear
  7. yesteryears
  8. yestiddy
  9. yestie
  10. yestier
  11. yestiest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: yesteryear (page history and authors); yesteryear (Tamil 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:

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

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