yew
/juː/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/jʉw/
yew noun: a species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. Also the eye dialect spelling of you.
Noun
yew (countable and uncountable, plural yews)
- A species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia.
- Old Yew, which graspest at the stones
That name the under-lying dead,
Thy fibres net the dreamless head,
Thy roots are wrapt about the bones.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto II”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC - Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273
- Synonyms:
- English yew, European yew, common yew
- Old Yew, which graspest at the stones
- Any tree or shrub of the genus Taxus.
- in family Podocarpaceae.
- in family Cephalotaxaceae.
- The wood of such trees.
- To prevent a too great conſumption of yew, bowyers were directed to make four bows of witch-haſel, aſh or elm, to one of yew, and no perſon under ſeventeen years of age, unleſs poſſeſſed of moveables worth forty marks, or the ſon of parents having an eſtate of ten pounds per annum might ſhoot in an...1786, Francis Grose, “Of Offensive Arms, or Weapons”, in A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, […], London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, pages 37–38
- English soldiers handled sturdy bows of yew, ash, or elm, which could propel an iron-tipped arrow as far as a hundred yards.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 155
- A bow for archery, made of yew wood.
Adjective
yew (not comparable)
- Made from the wood of the yew tree.
- Synonyms:
- yewen
Also used as
yew is also the eye dialect spelling of you.
yew meaning in Tagalog, Arabic and Persian
yew in Tagalog
- Taxus baccata
- teho
yew in Arabic
- Taxus baccata
- زَرْنَب zarnab, طَخْش ṭaḵš
- tree or shrub of the genus Taxus
- زَرْنَب zarnab, طَخْش ṭaḵš
yew in Persian
- Taxus baccata
- سرخدار sorxdâr
Examples of yew in a sentence
- I knew the yew tree was done for when the infection broomed up its branches.
- Shaggy asked him, ' 'Ow dew yew a reckon on your turnips, Fred?'
- The powerful anti-cancer drug taxol is extracted from the leaves of the yew tree.
Synonyms of yew
- English yew
- European yew
- common yew
- yewen
Forms of yew
| plural | yews |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | ew |
Origin of yew
From Middle English ew, from Old English īw, ēow, [both cognates of Welsh yw (“yews”), Irish eo, Old Irish eó respectively]; although the Old English form was conjectured to be from Proto-West Germanic *īhu, from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz (compare Icelandic ýr), masculine variant of *īwō (compare Dutch ijf, German Eibe), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyHw-. See also Hittite 𒄑𒂊𒅀𒀭 (eyan, “type of evergreen”), Latgalian īva (“bird cherry”), Lithuanian ievà (“bird cherry”), Russian и́ва (íva, “willow”). Compare typologically Ancient Greek τόξον (tóxon), possibly a cognate of Latin taxus.
Words formed from yew
- hold yew hard
- American yew
- Anglojap yew
- Canada yew
- Canadian yew
- catkin yew
- Chilean plum yew
- Chinese yewcommon yew
- European yew
- Florida yew
- Himalayan yew
- hybrid view
- intermeideate yew
- Irish yew
- Japanese yew
- Mexican yew
- New Caledonian yew
- southern yew
- nutmeg yew
- Pacific yew
- plum-fruited yew
- plum yew
- plum-yew
- Prince Albert's yew
- self-yew
- Sumatran yew
- Wellesley yew
- western yew
- white-berry yew
- yew pine
Phrases with yew
Words that rhyme with yew
Questions about yew
- What does yew mean?
- Yew means a species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia.
- What is yew in Tagalog?
- Yew in Tagalog is teho. See Yew meaning in Tagalog.
- What part of speech is yew?
- Yew can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce yew?
- Yew is pronounced /juː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of yew?
- The plural of yew is yews.
Words near yew in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: yew (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-uk-you.ogg, En-us-you.ogg.
Cite this entry: “yew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.