Word.ws English Dictionary

yikes

/jaɪks/

yikes interjection: expression of shock and alarm.

Interjection

(informal, often humorous)

  1. (humorous, informal, often) Expression of shock and alarm.
    • Yikes! A monster!
    • Then she told me I was ‘beautiful, for a black girl’. —Yikes!
    Synonyms:
    eek
  2. (humorous, informal, often) Expression of empathy with unpleasant or undesirable circumstances.
    • John has lost his job and can't pay his mortgage; yikes!
    • EXACTLY, BLOCKHEAD!! BONK [hitting head] / AGH… / [detective watching behind door] YIKES…DID HE WAKE UP?2006, Gosho Aoyama [pseudonym; Yoshimasa Aoyama], translated by Naoko Amemiya, “File 1: Real Self”, in Case Closed, volume 13, San Francisco, Calif.: VIZ Media, →ISBN, page 10

yikes meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

yikes in Hindi

यिकेज़, यिकेस

yikes in Tamil

யெய்க்ஸ், யிக்கேஸ்

yikes in Marathi

यिकेस

yikes in Urdu

ارے, توبہ
More languagesFewer languages
yikes in Bengali
ইয়াইকস
yikes in Telugu
యైకెస్
yikes in Kannada
ಯೆಯ್ಕ್ಸ್, ಯೈಕಸ್, ಯೆಯ್ಕ್ಗಳು
yikes in Punjabi
ਯਾਈਕਸ, ਯੀਕਸ
yikes in Gujarati
યાઈક્સ, યિકેસ, યિકેઝ
yikes in Odia
ଯ଼ିକେସ୍, ଯ଼ିକସ୍
yikes in Nepali
यिकेस
yikes in Malay
aduh

Synonyms of yikes

Forms of yikes

alternative formyipes

Origin of yikes

Attested from mid-20th century, perhaps derived from yoicks, a hunting call used to urge hounds after a fox, which is attested from 1765–1775, that also is sometimes used as an exclamation of excitement or triumph. Yoicks is perhaps related to the earlier hoicks. Hoicks (alternatively hoick, hoic or hoik) is a variant of hyke, which was used as an exclamation of encouragement to hounds hunting deer. Further etymology unknown. Alternatively, it may be derived from yipes, which is an earlier exclamation of similar usage as yikes (and is often considered to be an alternative form of yikes). Yipes may be derived from yipe, which itself may be derived from the yie sound often used to express pain or dismay, with the -p adding onto it in the same way as yep and nope. Or, yipes may be derived from the yipping sound that dogs make. Or, possibly a conflation of both of the previous.

Words formed from yikes

Words that rhyme with yikes

Questions about yikes

What does yikes mean?
Yikes means expression of shock and alarm.
What is yikes in Hindi?
Yikes in Hindi is यिकेज़, यिकेस. See Yikes meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is yikes?
Yikes is an interjection.
How do you pronounce yikes?
Yikes is pronounced /jaɪks/.

Words near yikes in the dictionary

  1. Yijiang
  2. Yijun
  3. yike
  4. yiked
  5. yikers
  6. yikes
  7. yikes on bikes
  8. yiking
  9. yikker
  10. yikkered
  11. yikkering

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: yikes (page history and authors); yikes (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); yikes (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yikes (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-yikes.ogg.

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