yo
UK/jəʊ/US/joʊ/
yo interjection: a greeting similar to hi. Also the pronunciation spelling of your.
Interjection
- A greeting similar to hi.
- Yo Paulie! How's it going?
- An interjection similar to hey.
- Yo, check this out!
- Check this out, yo!
- An expression of surprise or excitement.
- Yo, that's crazy, but I don't remember asking.
- I have quickly acclimated myself to the standard form of greeting on campus: "Oh hey what’s your name? … Yeah, nice to meet you, what're you studying? … Yo that’s sick!" A script to recite, nearly verbatim, 10 times a day or more.2021 October 2, Mason Cannon, “Don't Feel Pressured To Declare Your Major Right Away”, in Study Breaks
- Present! Here!
- Sergeant: Smith?
Private Smith: Yo!
- Sergeant: Smith?
- Emphatic conclusion to a statement.
- JESSE: That is messed up, yo.2010, "Kafkaesque" (Breaking Bad TV series, season 3, episode 9)
Pronoun
yo
- Generic third-person singular pronoun (primarily used in place of he and she).
- Is dat yo mama? What's yo doin' in here??
- I've lost ma pet turtle! But I think yo ain't far from here… You seen yo?
Noun (1)
yo (plural yos)
- The name of the letter Ё/ё in Cyrillic alphabets.
Phrase capitalized: YO
YO
Proper noun capitalized: YO
YO
- Initialism of the Special Region of Yogyakarta: a province of Indonesia.
Noun (2) capitalized: YO
YO
Verb capitalized: YO
YO (third-person singular simple present YOs, present participle YOing, simple past and past participle YOed)
Also used as
yo is also the pronunciation spelling of your.
yo is also the abbreviation of year(s) old.
yo is also the initialism of yarn over.
yo is also the clipping of yoleven.
yo is also the obsolete form of yue.
yo is also the alternative form of YO.
yo meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
yo in Hindi
- यो
yo in Tamil
- யோ, யொ, யோவிடம்
yo in Bengali
- ইয়ো
More languagesFewer languages
- yo in Telugu
- యో, యొ
- yo in Malayalam
- യോ, യൊ
- yo in Kannada
- ಯೋ, ಯೊ
- yo in Punjabi
- ਯੋ
- yo in Gujarati
- યો, યૉ
- yo in Odia
- ଯ଼ୋ, ଯୋ
- yo in Malay
- oi, hoi
- yo in Indonesian
- hoi, oi
Examples of yo in a sentence
- Yo was tuckin' in his shirt!
- Wha' dey said to yo? Yo looks nervous.
Synonyms of yo
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of yo
| Interjection | |
|---|---|
| alternative pronunciation-spelling | yoh |
| Determiner | |
| alternative form | yo' |
| Noun | |
| plural | yos |
| plural | yo |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | yos |
| present participle | yoing |
| past participle | yoed |
| past | yoed |
| third-person singular present | YOs |
| present participle | YOing |
| past participle | YOed |
| past | YOed |
Origin of yo
As a greeting first attested in 1859, attested first as a cry of sailors and huntsmen (first attested in the 1400s; compare e.g. huzzah, giddyup). Originally from Middle English yo, io, ȝo, yeo, yaw, variant forms of ya, ye (“yes, yea”), from Old English ġēa (“yes, yea”), from Proto-Germanic *ja (“yes, thus, so”); or perhaps from Old English ēow (“Wo!, Alas!”, interjection). Compare Danish, Swedish, German, Norwegian jo (“yes (flexible meaning)”), Dutch jow (“hi, hey”) and Dutch jo (“hi, hey”). More at yea, ow, ew. Modern popularity apparently dates from the early 20th century in Philadelphia, PA; amongst the Italian Community there, where io, with (as opposed to in standard Italian language) the stress on the ultima, was a common salutatory response among residents, particularly young males. This usage was apparently reinforced by the aforesaid English terms. It has been claimed to have been a common response at roll calls during World War 2 (see definition 4), and then most intensely attested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; it thence spread globally from American dominance of pop culture post-WWII.
From a non-rhotic pronunciation of your.
Ellipsis of such phrases as your friend/buddy, your brother/sister, your mom/dad, etc., referring to someone (whether present or absent, male or female) who is related to the interlocutor in some way. All such forms were then shortened to your (pronounced [joʊ], "yo", which see above). Eventually, the original meaning "your [someone]" was lost and broadened to "that person".
Words formed from yo
Phrases with yo
Words that rhyme with yo
Questions about yo
- What does yo mean?
- Yo means a greeting similar to hi.
- What is yo in Hindi?
- Yo in Hindi is यो. See Yo meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use yo in a sentence?
- Yo was tuckin' in his shirt!
- What part of speech is yo?
- Yo can be an interjection, a pronoun, a noun or a phrase.
- How do you pronounce yo?
- Yo is pronounced /jəʊ/ (UK).
Words near yo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: yo (page history and authors); YO (page history and authors); yo (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yo (Odia, 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-yo.ogg.
Cite this entry: “yo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.